Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald ends on a whopper of a shock reveal. After spending the movie trying to find out who his biological family is, Johnny Depp’s titular dark wizard finally reveals the truth to Obscurus Credence Barebone in the film’s final moments: His birth name was Aurelius Dumbledore, making him the youngest brother of Jude Law’s legendary Hogwarts professor.
It was a revelation that completely flummoxed fans and sent them scurrying to Pottermore and the books to try and make sense of how Dumbledore could have had another brother. Like he’s said before, star Ezra Miller was just as shocked as we were when he first discovered the truth of his character’s lineage, and in a new chat with EW, he revealed that he still has yet to find out any further information from writer J.K. Rowling.
“I was shocked, stunned, confused, petrificus totalus with wonder and fascination. And I still have a lot of questions for which I have no answers.”
Many Potterheads are questioning whether this reveal even makes sense, given what we know about Wizarding World canon, but Miller went on to assure fans that Rowling knows what she’s doing. He explained that he thinks the creator likes to pull the rug from under people before letting them know what’s really going on.
“Jo’s really good at that. She knows the mythology so well and I think she’s into confounding you for a moment and having a fan go, ‘wait that can’t make sense!’ and then showing you how things you thought couldn’t make sense make sense. I think she enjoys people not getting it for a second. She’s done it to us a bunch of times.”
Well, he’s certainly right there. In Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald alone, Rowling dropped multiple elements into the plot that’ve given fans a headache. A major one is the presence of Claudia Kim as Nagini, a character we previously thought was just a snake. Then there’s Queenie’s shift in allegiance – which, like Miller, actress Allison Sudol has also had to defend. And how can we forget the inclusion of Professor McGonagall, even though she’s not supposed to be born for another 8 years in the HP timeline? We’re not sure if Rowling can account for that one, but we look forward to getting more answers when the franchise returns with its third outing.
