If you’ve already seen Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, chances are you’re still reeling from the big final revelation of the movie. Suffice it to say, it involves the shocking truth coming out about one character’s origins and an unexpected addition to one of the Wizarding World’s most prominent families.
In the final scene, Johnny Depp’s titular dark wizard tells Credence Barebone (Ezra Miller) his birth name: Aurelius Dumbledore. Yes, apparently the Obscurial we knew as Credence is really the long lost younger brother of Hogwarts professor Albus, played in Fantastic Beasts by Jude Law. He’s a character we previously never knew existed, as J.K. Rowling’s past explorations of the Dumbledore clan had only named three siblings: eldest Aberforth, Albus and their late sister Ariana, who died in her teens.
Of course, it’s nothing new for the prequel series to alter details we thought we knew about the Harry Potter universe. For instance, Nagini was once a woman and not always a snake and McGonagall is now much older than we thought she was. However, as the revelation of Aurelius comes so out of the blue, we’re left to wonder if this isn’t all one big con and Grindelwald is actually telling his new protege a giant fib.
For instance, we don’t learn how Grindelwald came to know this information. And isn’t a bit of a coincidence that his secret weapon happens to be the brother of his old frenemy, the one person who can take him down? A revelation like that would surely knock Albus sideways, giving Grindelwald the upper hand.
What’s more, the scene in question begins with Queenie reading Credence’s mind and telling the villain that the boy doesn’t trust him. Grindelwald may have made up the lie on the spot then as he knew he needed to give the Obscurial some sort of answer to get him onside.
On the other hand, it would be a cheap move on Rowling’s part to bait us with this big rug-pull moment and then go back on it in the next film, but that sort of move has been committed before and no doubt it will again. For now, I guess we’ll just have to sit tight and see where the franchise takes us next, but tell us, what do you think about that twist in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald? Are you buying it? Have your say in the comments section down below.