Principal photography started today on an all new adventure set in J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World – the Harry Potter Universe – a sequel to Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
There’s a lot of returning characters in the second instalment of a planned five films in the series and David Yates is back to direct the as-yet-untitled sequel.
Warner Brothers announced a November 16, 2018 release date for the film which will move setting from New York to London, and then on to Paris in 1927, mere months after the events of the original film.
The main cast are confirmed to be returning to the ensemble, with Eddie Redmayne starring once again as magizoologist Newt Scamander; alongside Katherine Waterstone as Auror Tina Goldstein; Alison Sudol as her sister, Queenie Goldstein; and Dan Fogler as Jacob Kowalski, the token No-Maj (non-magic-using civilian).
Johnny Depp also returns as the villainous Gellert Grindlewald – a powerful Dark wizard – who escapes from captivity – of course – and plots to elevate wizards above non-magic-using beings.
There will be nods to the Harry Potter stories for devoted fans of the series as characters who were briefly mentioned or only pictured in the first film will feature.
We see Jude Law take up the robes of Albus Dumbledore decades before he became headmaster at Hogwarts.
Dumbledore will be involved in the struggle to stop Grindlewald’s plot and enlists the help of his former student – Scamander – to thwart Grindlewald.
There’s a number of additional roles added to the series which I hope won’t confuse the plot in the next instalment – the original film was already packed with plot.
Zoe Kravitz plays Leta Lestrange, seen in a photograph in the first film, a mysterious woman from Newt Scamander’s past.
Interestingly, Ezra Miller returns as Credence – a character who had an unknown fate at the end of the first film and was responsible for some of the scarier moments.
We also meet Theseus Scamander, Newt’s older brother, who is a war hero and Auror (played by Callum Turner) while Claudia Kim will appear as a “young woman we first meet as a featured attraction at a wizarding circus”.
The ensemble cast also includes William Nadylam as a wizard named Yusuf Kama; Ingvar Sigurdsson as a bounty hunter named Grimmson; Olafur Darri Olafsson as Skender, who runs the wizarding circus; while Kevin Guthrie returns as Abernathy, who was Tina and Queenie’s boss at MACUSA (Magical Congress of the USA).
The new adventure is being filmed at Warner Brothers Studios Leavesden, which has been the cinematic home of the Wizarding World since the first “Harry Potter” film.