This past Friday, Warner Bros. and J.K. Rowling launched a new chapter of their Wizarding World with the release of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, but it seems that moving forward we’ll see a shift in focus from Eddie Redmayne’s character Newt Scamander as the franchise delves instead into the story of Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald.
“I don’t think [Newt will be at] the heart of all of them,” producer David Heyman tells Cinema Blend. “I think he’ll be part — so will Tina, Queenie and Jacob — will be part of the next one. [Dumbledore] and Credence and Grindelwald. I think they will be the main players.”
We have already seen Johnny Depp’s Gellert Grindelwald making a brief appearance in Fantastic Beasts, while Ezra Miller’s Credence Barebone was thought to have perished at the film’s climax. However, Heyman went on to reveal that a scene was removed from the final cut, which would have shown that he survived:
“We actually had a scene, which we cut, which was Credence going to a boat, to get on a boat somewhere else. But we cut that, because we didn’t want to have it be such an, ‘Ahhh, here we go.’ Him getting on a boat, maybe a boat with Newt, maybe not, and heading off out of New York.”
SEE ALSO: 5 Actors for Young Dumbledore in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
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.
Originally published November 23, 2016. Updated April 16, 2018.
