What better way to pep up Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 2 than to cast the son of an actual magician as Philosopher’s Stone creating alchemist Nicholas Flamel? That’s probably why Brontis Jodorowsky, son of Alejandro Jodorowsky, has been cast as the character. Now, you may be asking yourself, “who the hell is that and why should I care?” which is understandable given that his film career to date has largely consisted of very strange, arthouse movies directed by his awesome dad (who’s seriously a straight-up magician).
First seen as a child in the original midnight movie El Topo back in 1970, Brontis has more recently played his own tyrannical grandfather in Alejandro Jodorowsky’s two autobiographic movies, The Dance of Reality and Endless Poetry, in which (in my humble opinion) he was downright amazing. Despite that, the audience for Jodorowsky’s typically bonkers fare is a bit limited, so it’s a genuine surprise to see him picked out for what’s sure to be one of the biggest films of 2018.
Appropriately for the character of Flamel (much discussed, never actually seen in the Harry Potter films), we even get a taste of what alchemy might be like, Jodorowsky-style in his The Holy Mountain. In a very memorable and bizarre scene, the hero alchemically converts his excrement into gold. Might we see this referenced in Fantastic Beasts 2? It’s possible.
Also confirmed for the cast are The Daily Show‘s Jessica Williams as an as yet unknown character, Wolf Roth as someone called Spielman, Victoria Yeates as ‘Bunty,’ Derek Riddell (great Potter name) as Torquil Travers, Poppy Corby-Tuech as Rosie, Cornell S. John as Arnold Guzman and Fiona Glascott in an unconfirmed role. They’ll be joining these previously confirmed new cast members: Jude Law as a young Albus Dumbledore, Callum Turner as Newt’s brother Theseus and Zoë Kravitz as Leta Lestrange.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 2Â is due out November 18th, 2018.
