Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is, unsurprisingly, the talk of the town. Even before its theatrical release, Warner’s magical offshoot stole headlines left, right, and center after it was confirmed that the saga would span five movies in total, with each new installment bearing a title reminiscent of Harry Potter. There was also mention that the great Albus Dumbledore will have a role to play in the planned 2018 sequel, but the would-be Hogwarts headmaster isn’t the only character due to crop up in two years’ time.
Chatting to Cinema Blend, director David Yates confirmed that following her blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance in Fantastic Beasts – a black-and-white photo of Zoe Kravitz’s character is spotted in Newt’s briefcase at one point – Leta Lestrange will indeed enter the fray in 2018.
A damaged former flame to Eddie Redmayne’s brilliant Magizoologist, Yates noted that, “Leta Lestrange comes into the second movie. She’s quite complicated and damaged and confused and Newt is absolutely still in love with her, so she has a kind of power over him, and she, yeah, she’s a kind of tragic figure, so we will see a bit more of her in the second movie.”
That means Fantastic Beasts 2 will make room in its ranks for not only Dumbledore and Lestrange, but also Gellert Grindelwald, a dark, enigmatic wizard that has a troubled history with Dumbledore. WB has already cast Johnny Depp for the part, meaning that news of who’s playing the young Albus shouldn’t be too far away.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 2 will likely get an official title in the coming months, though we do know Yates’ follow-up has already staked out November 16, 2018. If you’re wanting to take a deeper dive into the filmmaker’s budding franchise-starter, look no further than our review.
