The newest trailer for the latest instalment in the Fantastic Beasts franchise dropped yesterday, teasing Albus Dumbledore’s tragic love story with the evil wizard Grindelwald. Featuring snatches of Hogwarts before Harry Potter came along and a phoenix believed to be Dumbledore’s steadfast friend Fawkes, Potterheads will have a lot to be excited about when Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore is finally released in April.
This is the first Fantastic Beasts film in four years, since The Crimes of Grindelwald came out in 2018. The cast is a little different this time though, as the villain Grindelwald has been recast with Mads Mikkelsen stepping into Johnny Depp’s shoes; following Depp’s Instagram statement posted in 2020 that he had resigned at studio Warners Brothers’ request.
While there was a very quick glimpse of Grindelwald in last December’s trailer for the film, we got a better look at Mikkelsen’s take on the character in the new one. One scene sees Dumbledore (played by Jude Law) sitting across from Grindelwald in a cafe in a dramatic conversation, where Dumbledore calls his actions “madness.”
Grindelwald alludes to their close bond, telling him, “It was you that said we could reshape the world.”
Warner Bros.
While Dumbledore’s sexuality is never explicitly addressed in the Harry Potter book series, it was revealed he was gay in 2007 and that he had been deeply in love with Grindelwald. Based on the trailer, this new Fantastic Beasts film appears to shift the focus away from its creature-loving protagonist Newt Scamander and instead onto a young Dumbledore as he tries to stop an all-out war between wizards, witches and muggles from happening.
Other fun Easter eggs from the trailer include shots of Fantastic Beasts characters heading to Hogwarts, a fluttering Golden Snitch (which Dumbledore previously used in the Harry Potter books to conceal a key item) and a massive chamber Scamander previously called the “room that we require” – perhaps a reference to the Hogwarts’ mysterious Room of Requirement. It was also packed with tense, action-filled moments, teasing a magical standoff between Dumbledore and Grindelwald as well as more of Scamander’s monster encounters.
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore will be released April 8.