This month, we’ve been privy to a fair amount of footage and pics from the upcoming Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, but it seems that Warner Bros. hasn’t given the whole game away quite yet, with Eddie Redmayne hinting that the Harry Potter spinoff is packing one mammoth twist.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, the star of 2016’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them teased an elaborate and unpredictable plot with several connections to the wider Wizarding World.
“The script is labyrinthian,” the actor explained. “It’s like you’re going down this maze and Jo is weaving the stories together with such intricacy. Along the way these connections to Harry Potter and secrets are falling at your feet.”
Redmayne went on to suggest that this “labyrinthian” journey was leading up to one major bombshell at the climax.
“There is one… I got to the end and my jaw dropped. There was one thing I didn’t see coming.”
The latest trailer already brought us an unusual reveal when it showed that Voldemort’s pet snake Nagini had been a transformed Korean woman this whole time. The development was criticized as racially insensitive in some circles, though writer J.K. Rowling has since offered her defense that she was simply drawing on ‘Naga’ mythology.
And speaking of controversy, Johnny Depp – who’ll be reprising the role of the titular Grindelwald – recently addressed the backlash that his continued presence in the series has received due to the allegations of domestic abuse leveled at him. The star continues to insist that he was falsely accused, while noting that Rowling’s in agreement with him after seeing the evidence.
Needless to say, there’ll be some tension in the air when Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald hits theaters on November 16th, though that probably won’t stop the subsequent Fantastic Beasts 3 from making it to cinemas on November 20th, 2020.
