Though it might not be the Harry Potter film that many fans are still holding out hope for, upcoming spinoff Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is still generating a considerable amount of hype ahead of its November release.
Set in New York during the Roaring ‘20s, which is way before the events of the Harry Potter series take place, Eddie Redmayne’s wizarding prodigy Newt Scamander is the anchor of Fantastic Beasts, transporting a briefcase brimming with all kinds of wonderful creatures to the Magical Congress of the United States of America. But once those beasts escape, it threatens not only Newt’s career, but also his fellow magicians who struggle to assimilate into a wiz-phobic America.
We’ve seen a lot from the film already and truth be told, it looks quite good. Warner Bros. is confident in it as well, having already ordered up a sequel. It will no doubt be a lot of fun returning to this magical world and given that Fantastic Beasts will be introducing us to a ton of new characters, we can’t wait to dive right in.
In addition to the new characters though, we’ll also be seeing a few new magical abilities. One of these is Legilimency, which has been glimpsed in the past (like when Snape used it on Harry in spell form), but will be shown properly and somewhat differently here, as Alison Sudol’s character, Queenie Goldstein, possesses the ability.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, the actress explained it more in depth:
She’s basically a complete and utter magical empath. She’s able to read people — so it’s not just reading somebody’s thoughts. She’s can read into someone’s story, she can see people’s goals. And so even though she’s able to do magic with her wand, a lot of her magic is actually internal, which makes her a different type of wizard or witch. And she’s incredibly fun, playful, joyful, and free-spirited, kind and wise, and also has a sort of stillness about her because she’s always tuning into people, so she’s quite an interesting character to play — very vivacious and lively, yet very centered and aware.
So then, it appears as if Legilimency will be featured heavily in the film and while not exactly a never before seen or heard of magical ability, it will be explored in more depth than it has been before. We’re sure it won’t be the only new ability that will show up in Fantastic Beasts, either. With so many new characters and a whole new part of this universe set to be explored, we can’t wait to see what else is in store for us when the film arrives this fall.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them will cast a spell on theatres on November 18th, 2016.
