Fantastic Beasts And The Secrets Of Dumbledore: Release Date, Cast Changes and more…

By Zoe Weiner

It’s been 3 years since the last Fantastic Beasts film came out and fans cannot wait to see these characters back on the big screen. The last installment of the Fantastic Beasts franchise was the second movie Fantastic Beasts and the Crimes of Grindelwald, and it left fans on the edge of their seats with its numerous cliffhangers. The third film was scheduled to be released in November 2021 but due to Covid the production was delayed, so the film was not released as planned. The good news is we finally have a release date, April 15, 2022. Since it has been almost 4 years since the last installment was released, here are some things to expect from the upcoming movie.

Warning there are spoilers for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Fantastic Beasts the Crimes of Grindelwald in this article, so if you haven’t seen those don’t keep reading!

One of the main surprises in the announcement for The Secrets Of Dumbledore was the casting change and the missing characters. When the first trailer was released on December 13, 2021, there was one notable character absence, Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterson) was not present in the trailer and her character was also not featured when the character posters were released. Tina is of course one of the main characters in the films and it was a big surprise that there was no mention of her in the trailer. Why Tina was not in the trailer or on a poster really can’t be said until the movie is released but as the official cast list states Katherine Waterson is still in the film so fans won’t have to worry about not seeing Tina in the film.

The Crimes of Grindelwald starred Johnny Depp as Grindelwald but a big difference between the 2nd and the 3rd films will be the fact that the part of Grindelwald has been recast, fans were surprised to learn that Warner Bro. had recast the role of the main villain, Mads Mikkelsen will now play the leading villain role of Grindelwald. The Crimes of Grindelwald may not have gotten the best reviews when it first came out, in fact out of all the Harry Potter movies, Crimes of Grindelwald got the worst reviews. Warner Bro. is hoping that this film will do better for the franchise but with some people planning on not seeing the movie at all due to Johnny Depp’s absence, who knows if Warner Bro. are going to get their wish.

Another shock to the cast list was the fact that Nagini (Claudia Kim) will not appear in the third movie. She does play a big part in The Crimes of Grindelwald and it is not known if she will appear in the following films but so far she is the only character from the original Harry Potter franchise to appear in the Fantastic Beasts films, other than of course the younger Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law).

But it’s not just missing characters that are going to be interesting in The Secrets of Dumbledore, the film will also give more of a spotlight to some returning characters and introduce new characters, such as returning Bunty (Victoria Yeates), Newt’s assistant who we only got to see in a few scenes in Crimes of Grindelwald but as seen in the trailer will play a significant part in the upcoming movie as part of Newt’s group to stop Grindelwald.

Another returning character from the second film is Newt’s brother Theseus Scamander (Callum Turner), who had significantly more scenes than Bunty but who we are still being introduced to his character. From what the trailer shows Theseus will also be part of Newt’s team to take on Grindelwald.

A character that will not be returning or at least not returning in the living world is Leta Lestrange (Zoë Kravitz), Theseus’s fiance who was killed by Grindelwald near the end of the last film, so it will be interesting to see how the loss of his fiance affected him and how it may have changed him.

Missing, returning, and of course new characters. While returning characters Theseus, Jacob, and Bunty are all members of Newt’s team to fight against Grindelwald there are some faces that we have never seen before in the magical world such as Professor Eulalie “Lally” Hicks, who is an American witch and a charms professor at Ilvermorny (American Hogwarts) and many more will be seen in the new movie.

Warner Bro. just released the second trailer for The Secrets of Dumbledore on Monday, February 28th, 2022, so it won’t be too long before Fantastic Beasts will be back on the big screen on April 15, 2022.