7 things we want to see in 'Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald'
The first of four sequels to 2016’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, with Eddie Redmayne reprising his role as Newt Scamander, opens in Hong Kong tomorrow and, for Merlin’s sake, it’s about time! Here are seven (it being, after all, the most powerful magical number there is) things we really hope to see in the film.
More Nifflers
These small creatures are obsessed with hoarding shiny objects, as we saw in the first film during the hilarious scene at a jewellery store in New York. We want more crazy Niffling antics, please, as many as you can pack into a scene!
More Pickett
The needy, squeaky Bowtruckle made not a few of us on the team audibly say, “aww” when we first saw it. We’re not entirely sure there’s much of a need for Pickett in what appears to be a far more serious film, but a little levity with a mini-Groot-like figure might go a long way.
Badass Tina Goldstein
The witch who helped Newt capture Grindelwald in the first film had a few awesome scenes in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, but nowhere near as many as we wanted.We can’t wait to see Tina take on more dark wizards with her sister, Queenie.
Jacob Kowalski
We don’t know how the No-Maj (the *sigh* American word for "Muggle") will return to help his friends, seeing as he had his memory obliviated at the end of the first film, but we’re looking forward to seeing Jacob and his big dopey crush on Queenie again.
Creepy Credence Barebone
Credence, as it turned out, was very much the cause of all the magical disturbances that rocked New York in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. (No-one knew until the end, of course, because even Credence himself wasn’t aware.) It'll be interesting to see what sort of trouble he’ll stir up, now he is in complete control of his magical powers.
Nagini’s true form
One of the biggest reveals from this film is that Voldemort’s pet snake (and Horcrux) is actually a … pet woman. Claudia Kim plays a “Maledictus”, or someone who suffers a blood curse which will ultimately force them to transform permanently into a beast. There’s a lot of controversy surrounding this character (and the fact an Asian woman is portraying an ultimately sub-human-like pet), but we’ll reserve judgment until we’ve seen the film in its entirety.
Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore
Look, we simply cannot wait to see a young Dumbledore, who is so integral to the original Harry Potter series and a central figure in the war against Voldemort, on the silver screen. We know that he had a mysterious relationship with Grindelwald, and that it eventually turned sour as their viewpoints on Muggles took different turns. What we don’t know is how different his character as a young man is to the wise, twinkly-eyed headmaster he eventually becomes.