The New Fantastic Beasts Trailer Takes Fans Back To Hogwarts

When the Harry Potter movie franchise ended in 2011, it seemed like only a matter of time before more stories from the Wizarding World arrived in some form. It only took a few years before Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them was announced, and since the first film arrived in 2016, new installments have followed. But the theatrical shutdown of 2020 derailed the arrival of Fantastic Beasts 3, delaying the film’s initially scheduled arrival. But finally, Warner Bros. Pictures has put the movie back on the schedule with a 2022 premiere date and trailer.

Warning: Spoilers for the first two Fantastic Beasts films follow. When Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them was initially announced, Warner Bros. revealed the new story would be a trilogy. As everyone now knows, this was not just a simple story about Newt Scamander and his animal friends, but it also brings in Dumbledore and Grindelwald for a five-film series that focused on the first Wizarding World fight. The first film introduced American witches Porpentina “Tina” Goldstein and her sister, Queenie, as well as Queenie’s Muggle main squeeze Jacob Kowalski. Newt and Tina fell in love, but his obligations back home (and his supposed relationship with Leta Lestrange) kept them apart. The group also discovered that Grindelwald was planning to conquer the world.

The second film took Newt to France, where he once again ran into Tina and Queenie, now working undercover to take down Grindelwald with Jacob in tow. Leta had moved on to Newt’s brother, Theseus, leaving Newt free to pursue Tina. But Grindelwald’s triumph destroyed the group, as Queenie followed his nationalist siren song while Leta sacrificed her life to save others.

And then, in the series’ most controversial twist yet, fans discovered Dumbledore had a younger brother, Aurelius, who the family had rejected and was siding with Grindelwald. So, what is to come in the next installment? Here’s what fans should know:

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore Teasers & Trailers

After multiple delays in filming and release date scheduling, on Sept. 22, 2021, the official Fantastic Beasts Instagram account announced the name and premiere date of the third film. The teaser didn’t give much more away than just the title, but it’s a doozy: Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore.

The first trailer to show footage from the new film arrived on Dec. 13, 2021. Not only did it fill in the first real plot for the sequel, but it also gave fans their first look at Grindelwald’s new face.

While the trailer also introduced at least a few new Fantastic Beasts to the story, it also included a few easter eggs from the Harry Potter films. But it had nothing on the second trailer, which arrived on Feb. 28. As a reminder that this is Dumbledore’s movie, the trailer opened not with footage from the new film, but from 2009’s Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince, explicitly tying Jude Law’s version of the character to Michael Gambon’s.

Although the choice is probably just for the trailer, it does raise questions if Gambon is set to make a cameo appearance either in this film or going forward. Tying this new franchise directly to the old wouldn’t hurt.

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore Posters

On Feb. 22, Warner Bros. released character posters for the large cast of Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore. The images were posted to Instagram in batches; above, there’s Team Dumbledore, dubbed “Dumbledore’s First Army.”

Below, Team Grindelwald.

And more interestingly, a third team is also listed: those who are not on Grindelwald’s side, but also oppose Dumbledore. One assumes that these are the politicos in the vein of Cornelius Fudge, who just want to bury their heads in the sand.

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore Cast

Most of the main cast from the first two films are expected to return for Fantastic Beasts 3. Eddie Redmayne leads the group as magizoologist Newt Scamander. Katherine Waterston plays the love of his life, Tina Goldstein; Alison Sudol is her younger sister, Queenie; and Dan Fogler is the muggle who loves her, Jacob Kowalski.

Then there are those returning from the second film. Jude Law plays Albus Dumbledore, the younger version of the wizard who will one day be the headmaster of Hogwarts. Callum Turner is Theseus Scamander, Newt’s older brother, and Jessica Williams is Tina’s old teacher, Professor Eulalie Hicks. Ezra Miller will also return as “Credence Barebone,” whose proper name, as fans learned in the second movie, is Aurelius Dumbledore.

Initially, Johnny Depp was also supposed to return from the second film. After spending the first movie under a false name and face as Percival Graves (played by Colin Farrell), the actor took over the primary antagonist role, revealing himself as Grindelwald. But, following accusations of spousal abuse against Depp (which Depp has denied), Warner Bros. Pictures dropped him from the movie. Mads Mikkelsen will take over the role.

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore Plot

As for the plot of this third installment, the title makes it evident Aurelius Dumbledore will be front and center. Fans have many questions (and complaints) about this new twist, and hopefully, the new movie can answer them to everyone’s satisfaction.

There is some hope that will happen in this third film, despite the first two being generally considered giant, overstuffed messes. After franchise creator J.K. Rowling wrote the first two scripts, Warner Bros. chose to give script writing duties to writer Steve Kloves for the next installment. Kloves was a main writer on all seven Harry Potter script adaptations, and thus familiar with taking Rowling’s ideas and condensing them down into digestible feature films.

While fans learn the secrets of Dumbledore, Grindelwald’s continued march to Wizarding World domination will also continue. The globe-hopping nature of these films will also be a significant plot point. After spending the first film in New York and the second in Paris, the third will split between two major world capitals: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Berlin, Germany. The latter is not that big of a surprise, as Grindelwald was always a bit of a metaphor for WWII, and putting him in the German capital as the 1930s hit was always bound to be a location.

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore Premiere Date

When the first Fantastic Beasts movie premiered, Warner Bros. pictures revealed an ambitious schedule for four more films to follow, arriving every two years in November like clockwork. But after the second film arrived in November 2018 and critics were less than kind about it, the production company decided to delay Fantastic Beasts 3 an entire year, from November 2020 to November 2021.

That turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as the theatrical shutdowns that year upended the schedule completely and filming was delayed. Initially, Warner Bros. penciled the new date in as a summer blockbuster release for July 2022, but the movie has since been moved back up and will debut in April.

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore will premiere in theaters on April 15, 2022. All eight of the original Harry Potter films are streaming on HBO Max. The first two Fantastic Beasts films are available as rentals on Amazon.