Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald ends on a whopper of a shocking revelation. The final scene sees Johnny Depp’s titular dark wizard informing Credence Barebone of his true lineage: his birth name is Aurelius Dumbledore, making him the younger brother of the iconic Hogwarts professor, played by Jude Law in the movie.
The twist of Credence’s – sorry, Aurelius’ – identity has blown fans away and sent hardcore Potterheads scurrying back to the books to see if there’s ever been any hint of a fourth Dumbledore sibling before now. But what did actor Ezra Miller think when he read the script and discovered this huge bombshell about his character?
Well, it’s fair to say he was just as freaked out as the fans. “I had a serious, serious meltdown that I’m still having now,” he told CinemaBlend. Same Ezra, same.
As we previously discussed, the Dumbledore family was always said to consist of Albus, his older brother Aberforth and their late sister Ariana, who was referenced in Crimes when Albus admits he lost a sister to Leta Lestrange and that he probably should have loved her more than he did. That’s, of course, a reference to the fact that Albus blames himself for her death, when she was caught by a stray blast during a heated duel he had with Aberforth and Gellert Grindelwald.
It’s difficult to know how Aurelius fits in here, as it’s been established that mother Kendra died in 1899 while father Percival was imprisoned in 1900, many years before the birth of Credence. This could be another example of J.K. Rowling breaking her own canon, but the discrepancy has led some fans to theorize that perhaps Grindelwald was lying to Credence and he’s not a Dumbledore, after all.
We bet if that comes out in Fantastic Beasts 3, Ezra Miller will have another meltdown. We definitely will.
