Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

The box office success of Moana feels like destiny: an old school Disney formula plus 21st century polish plus great songs plus the mere presence of Dwayne Johnson and near-universal critical notices is a surefire recipe for success...

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them made no secret of the fact that though it takes place an ocean and almost a century away, it’s still deeply tied to the Harry Potter universe. Johnny Depp plays the dark wizard Grindelwald, the Voldemort before Voldemort, in this movie and its sequels, and director David Yates is already casting for Dumbledore for the sequel, who we know used to be Grindelwald’s friend. Another character with close ties to Newt Scamander will appear in the Fantastic Beasts sequel, and bring the magizoologist’s past back with them. (Be warned: SPOILERS for Fantastic Beasts are contained in the following paragraphs.)

Few actors have seen their stock plummet as much in the last year as Johnny Depp. Despite a long career and many memorable roles, Depp’s narrow comfort zone as an actor  —  and the domestic abuse revelations that came out during Amber Heard’s divorce proceedings  —  have made it difficult for audiences to get excited for any new projects. We can barely keep track of all the talented actors and actresses out there; why waste time with one who doesn’t deserve our admiration?

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them may not have Harry Potter in its title, but the first entry in J.K. Rowling and David Yates’ spin-off series did Harry Potter numbers, dominating the box office and dethroning Doctor Strange from its position at the top of the charts. The film’s success came at the expense of the other newcomers, with The Edge of Seventeen and Bleed For This both stumbling in the bottom half of the top 1

While die-hard fans of the Harry Potter universe probably would have been happy if Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them simply gave some screen time to characters from the franchise’s vast lore, it turns out that author J.K. Rowling had something bigger in mind for her latest film. Fantastic Beasts retroactively raises the stakes by quite a bit, introducing a powerful enemy of wizards everywhere and hinting that the story of Newt Scamander and his companions had just begun.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a pretty lengthy title, but no less of a mouthful than, say, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — or pretty much any Potter film. With four more sequels on the horizon, one of our biggest questions about the series moving forward is how Warner Bros. will approach the titles. Fortunately, Eddie Redmayne has an answer.

J.K. Rowling‘s wizarding world has finally returned. Now that you’ve seen the new Harry Potter spinoff Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and read our spoiler-free review, it’s time discuss all the spoilers, criticisms, and theories for what’s next in the five-film franchise. Take out your wands, fill up a nice cold mug of Butterbeer, and get ready to go back in time to the 1920s.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them opens this week, but is the Harry Potter spinoff enough to kick off a brand new franchise? Will J.K. Rowling’s new movie connect to the Potter book series? ScreenCrush has new fan theories that could tie everything together. You might want to sit down for this.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them has been releasing so many clips lately that you can almost watch the entire movie before its premiere without leaving your computer. Most of them have included information we already know or serve to introduce us to some of the beasts we’ll meet, but one of the new ones released today touches on a very important detail: the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald.

How do you make a successful Harry Potter prequel without Harry Potter? J.K. Rowling’s new spinoff, Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, travels back nearly 70 years to 1926 before the events of the first Potter movie to tell a whole new story in a new setting with (almost) all new characters. Reviving the magical universe from the second biggest franchise of all time is a pretty risky move, but Fantastic Beasts does a good job of blending the familiar with the new.