Despite it taking place some 70 years before the Harry Potter series, there’s been plenty of speculation as to whether Warner Bros. and J.K. Rowling’s now five film franchise Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them could feature appearances from some familiar faces from the Wizarding World.
Well, we now have official confirmation on that from director David Yates, who has revealed that Albus Dumbledore will feature in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 2, and that the search is on for an actor to take on the role previously portrayed by Richard Harris and Michael Gambon.
“In the second movie Dumbledore comes back,” said Yates in an interview with Screen Rant. “He’s got a couple of good scenes with Newt… We’re discussing who would play Dumbledore, any suggestions would be good [Laughs].”
We have already had one piece of casting news for Fantastic Beasts 2, with Johnny Depp signing on for a mystery role, with speculation pointing to the character of Gallert Grindelwald, a former friend of Dumbledore’s who went on to become one of the most dangerous Dark Wizards of all time.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them opens in 1926 as Newt Scamander has just completed a global excursion to find and document an extraordinary array of magical creatures. Arriving in New York for a brief stopover, he might have come and gone without incident…were it not for a No-Maj (American for Muggle) named Jacob, a misplaced magical case, and the escape of some of Newt’s fantastic beasts, which could spell trouble for both the wizarding and No-Maj worlds.
“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” stars Academy Award winner Eddie Redmayne (“The Theory of Everything”), Katherine Waterston (“Steve Jobs,” “Inherent Vice”) as Tina; Tony Award winner Dan Fogler (“The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee”) as Jacob; Alison Sudol (“Dig,” “Transparent”) as Tina’s sister, Queenie; Ezra Miller (“Trainwreck”) as Credence; two-time Oscar nominee Samantha Morton (“In America,” “Sweet and Lowdown”) as Mary Lou; Oscar winner Jon Voight (“Coming Home,” TV’s “Ray Donovan”) as Henry Shaw, Sr.; Ron Perlman (the “Hellboy” films) as Gnarlack; Carmen Ejogo (“Selma”) as Seraphina; Jenn Murray (“Brooklyn”) as Chastity; young newcomer Faith Wood-Blagrove as Modesty; and Colin Farrell (“True Detective”) as Percival Graves.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is set for release on November 18th.