When one thinks of Paris, it becomes easy to fall back on a series of stereotypes – cheese, wine, romance, the Eiffel Tower…that kinda’ thing.
But for director David Yates, the City of Lights represents so much more. Currently in the process of steering Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald toward its November 2018 release, Yates spoke to Entertainment Weekly about his magical prequel, and how it features a “glamorous” wizarding community that happily co-exists with the Muggle population. A far cry from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, then.
Speaking of regular old humans, it turns out the French word for Muggle/Nomaj is pretty simple: “Non–magique.”
The wizarding world in Paris is quite glamorous, it’s quite beautiful. There’s a community that lives alongside the Muggle community, it’s much freer than in New York, where there’s segregation. Paris is a bit like England, actually, not so hung up about the differences between the two. Magical people can freely move into non-magical communities as long as they’re discrete about their talents…
True to J.K. Rowling’s original novel, the first Fantastic Beasts spinoff largely took place in New York City, where the intrepid Newt Scamander accidentally misplaced a briefcase filled with weird and wonderful creatures. Chaos ensued.
With The Crimes of Grindelwald, the Harry Potter prequel saga is uprooting for Paris, with each subsequent sequel expected to explore an entirely new city. There are another three films in the works, too, proving that Warner is rustling up a full-blown global story.
Casting-wise, we know Johnny Depp clinched the role of dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald – controversially, we might add – and will be part of a cast comprised of Jude Law (Albus Dumbledore), Alien: Covenant‘s Katherine Waterston (Tina), Dan Fogler) Jacob (Dan Fogler) and Alison Sudol as the inimitable Queenie.
Expect Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald to apparate into cinemas all over the world on November 18th.
