What we learned from Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindelwald


Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, the second prequel to the long-running Harry Potter franchise written by JK Rowling, was released in cinemas on November 8, 2018. It would be an understatement to say that a lot of things happened in this movie.

As we all know, Grindelwald was arguably the most dangerous wizard of all time. He spread chaos throughout the wizarding community and terrorized the non-magic world. We join our main protagonist, Newt Scamander, as he is caught up in the epic conflict between Grindelwald and the entire wizarding world, despite being just a magizoologist. So, let’s get into all the things that we learned from Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.

1. The main protagonist

The first thing that we noticed is that Newt Scamander does not seem to be the main protagonist of the story. Instead, he comes across as a bystander who has a debatable role in this conflict. In fact, it seems as though the only reason Newt was dragged into the conflict was that he was the main protagonist in the first prequel, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

We found that the character that this story really evolved around was Credence, the boy who supposedly died in the first prequel, but is revealed to have survived in this movie. The shocking revelations about his family background and his immense dormant power, coupled with his personality, make him the most interesting character in both the first and second prequel.

2. The muggle family in Paris

In the movie, Grindelwald sets up a safe house for himself and his followers in Paris, where he murders a muggle (or non magical) family. It is also shown that as they are carrying the bodies out, Grindelwald looks almost as if he knew the family. Could this relation play a role in the upcoming movie, or was it just an unintentional cinematic effect?

3. Nagini

Nagini was first introduced as Voldemort’s obedient snake that did his bidding in the Harry Potter movies. In this movie, it is revealed that Nagini is actually a Maledictus, meaning that she is a person with a blood curse that will eventually transform her into a creature. But what we don’t know is when she changes from the sweet and charming woman shown in this movie to the vicious creature in the Harry Potter movies.

4. The Blood Pact

The ending is the moment that seemed to raise the most eyebrows. As we all know from the Harry Potter movies, it was revealed that Dumbledore could not confront Grindelwald during the early years of his movement owing to a blood pact they made during their childhood. In this movie, the procedure of the blood pact was further elaborated upon, and it was shown that both wizards had to cut the palms of their hands, press them together and cast some sort of spell, and later transfer the blood into a pendant.

This may seem like the unbreakable vow but there is an extra step in this that may play an important role in the next movie. The ending shows Newt Scamander presenting Dumbledore with the pendant, and it may be assumed that destroying this pendant. This could release Dumbledore from his vow and allow him to confront Grindelwald, leading to their epic duel mentioned many times throughout the Harry Potter franchise.

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