“Explore a new era of J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World,” the tagline reads, and in 2016 the film made good on the promise — mostly. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them runs 133 minutes, directed by David Yates and written by Rowling in her debut as a screenwriter. It is the ninth film in the Wizarding World franchise and a prequel to the Harry Potter series.
Trailer, via Warner Bros..
Newt Scamander and the Briefcase
Eddie Redmayne plays Newt, a British magizoologist and former Ministry of Magic employee. He arrives in New York City in 1926 carrying a magically expanded briefcase that houses dangerous creatures and their habitats. The beasts escape, and the American wizarding authorities come after him.
Jacob Kowalski and the Swapped Suitcases
Dan Fogler is Jacob, a No-Maj cannery worker and aspiring baker. He and Newt swap suitcases by accident, and Jacob later opens the wrong one, freeing several creatures into the city. He is bitten by one. Tina Goldstein, a demoted MACUSA Auror played by Katherine Waterston, arrests Newt for breaking magical law, then tracks the wreckage with him.
Queenie and the Legilimens Apartment
Alison Sudol plays Queenie, Tina’s younger sister and roommate, a skilled Legilimens. At her apartment, Jacob and Queenie are mutually attracted, though American law bars social relationships between wizards and No-Majs.
The Obscurial Inside the Case
Inside the suitcase, Newt keeps an Obscurial of a deceased girl — a parasite that develops in magically gifted children when their abilities are suppressed. Those afflicted rarely live past 10.
Mary Lou Barebone and the Second-Salemers
Samantha Morton plays Mary Lou Barebone, a No-Maj who leads the New Salem Philanthropic Society, a group aiming to expose and kill wizards and witches. Ezra Miller is Credence, her troubled adopted son and a secret Obscurial.
Grindelwald and the Cast Around Him
Colin Farrell plays Graves, Carmen Ejogo is MACUSA President Seraphina Picquery, and Jon Voight is newspaper owner Henry Shaw Snr. Johnny Depp appears as Grindelwald; Zoë Kravitz is Lestrange; Ron Perlman is Gnarlak.
Release Schedule
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| September 2013 | New Wizarding World film series announced |
| August 2014 | Warner Bros. names Yates to direct |
| August 2015 – January 2016 | Filming at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden and on location in England |
| 10 November 2016 | Premiere at Alice Tully Hall, New York City |
What the Film Gets Right
The casting carries the film. Redmayne’s Newt is introverted and specific, Fogler supplies warmth, and Sudol’s Queenie gives the story its pulse. The Obscurial thread is the strongest idea Rowling has put on screen — a monster made of suppressed children.
But the plot buckles under setup. The film spends its running time introducing a trilogy it never earns, and the reveal that a second Obscurial already lives in the city lands with less weight than the creature chase that precedes it. Yates keeps the pace clean; Rowling’s script trusts its audience less.
It is a solid opening, not a great one. 7.3 of 10.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.
