As we reported earlier, EW released some new stills from next month’s Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald this week which gave us a couple of interesting elements of the movie to chew over, including some new locations and character dynamics. Something that we missed at first glance, however, was a connection to the Harry Potter books.
One photo introduced us to Vinda Rosier, as played by Poppy Corby-Tuech. The character seems to be a dark witch who’s “an ally of Grindelwald’s from a prestigious wizarding family.” In the photo we have here, she’s seen presenting Johnny Depp’s demogogue with a skull and some rope during a meeting with his followers which we’re told takes place underneath the Lestrange family mausoleum.
Obviously, the name “Lestrange” will be familiar to Harry Potter fans, as Bellatrix Lestrange was Voldemort’s favorite henchwoman. Not to mention that a kindly ancestor of her’s – Leta – will appear in Crimes, played by Zoe Kravitz. However, there’s another HP connection here as well, as this isn’t the first time that we’ve heard of the Rosier family.
In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry witnesses Dumbledore’s memory of the time Igor Karkaroff was convicted of being a Death Eater. In order to barter for his freedom, Karkaroff gave the names of other followers of Voldemort, one of whom was Evan Rosier.
It seems the Rosiers have allied themselves with dark wizards across the decades then, which makes sense as the family’s listed as one of “The Sacred Twenty-Eight,” the list of ancient pure-blood wizarding families that believe in keeping their gene pool free of muggles. Clearly, then, they’re going to agree with muggle-hating madmen like Grindelwald and Voldemort.
This is a typical bit of cross-pollination from creator J.K. Rowling and from what we understand, Fantastic Beasts 2 is full of this – from the presence of a young Dumbledore to the reveal that Claudia Kim’s character is Nagini, who we previously only knew as the snake at Voldemort’s side. We’re sure there’s much more in store for us as well, and we’ll get to see what else Rowling has planned when Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald casts a spell on moviegoers starting on November 16th.
