‘Fantastic Beasts 2’ Will Take Place in Paris

The first Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find spin-off relocates J.K. Rowling’s wizarding world to America, but don’t expect the next four films in the franchise to take place in the U.S. Director David Yates revealed last month at a Global Fan Event that the sequel will find Eddie Redmayne’s Newt Scamander in another big city that’s not New York. Now we have confirmation of that location: Paris!

In a new cover story from Empire magazine (via Digital Spy), Yates revealed the second installment in the five-film Fantastic Beasts franchise will travel to the capital of France. The interview hasn’t made its way online yet, but you can see a scan over at SnitchSeeker.com. The magazine reports the sequel is already underway, and Yates described it as “quite ambitious.”

You might be wondering, “Why are the Harry Potter spin-offs going to America just to head back across the pond?” With the little we know about the Fantastic Beasts franchise, it makes sense. The first film will reintroduce us to Gellert Grindlewald, the dangerous dark wizard from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. If you’re rusty on your Potter history, star Ezra Miller already summarized that for you yesterday. Yates revealed at the Global Fan Event that while Grindelwald is mainly just in the background of the first movie, he’s a prominent character throughout the franchise. I saw the first 10 minutes of Fantastic Beasts and – avert your eyes for spoilers – it sets up Grindelwald’s attacks across Europe via newspaper headlines. So it makes sense for the sequel to travel back to Europe and catch up with whatever Grindelwald is up to, likely finding him in hiding.

And that brings us to: Johnny Depp. Yesterday it was revealed that Depp will star in Fantastic Beasts 2 in an unknown role. But no role stays mysterious for too long in the age of the internet. There were rumors Depp will play the older version of Grindelwald (his younger version was played by Depp’s Sweeney Todd co-star James Campbell Bower), and now Hypable has confirmed the casting. According to the site, first Fantastic Beasts will hardly feature Depp’s Grindelwald, only showing the back of his head. We’ve already seen that shot in the Fantastic Beasts featurette video. (Hypable’s source seems pretty reliable since they previously confirmed the shot of the blonde-haired guy from the footage was indeed Grindelwald.)

If Fantastic Beasts 2 takes Newt to Paris, we’ll likely see Depp’s full debut as the dark wizard there too. And maybe we’ll get to visit Beauxbatons Academy of Magic. Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them opens November 18.