Released in 2016, Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them served as a prequel to the blockbusting Harry Potter films. And in this year's threequel Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, we will be reunited with the young version of legendary Hogwarts wizard, Albus Dumbledore.
The film will focus again on Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) the main character from Fantastic Beasts, and he will join forces with his old professor Dumbledore (played as a younger man by Jude Law) in order to stop dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald (Mads Mikkelsen) from raising a pure-blood wizarding army to rule over Muggles (non-magical people).
In the latest trailer for the film, it's clear that distributor Warner Bros are following other huge cinematic universes by formally establishing that Fantastic Beasts is set in the 'Wizarding World'. This ensures audiences recognise that these films occur within the same story as the Harry Potter franchise, and also helps to establish future instalments (it's long been known that Fantastic Beasts will be a five-part series).
By being part of the 'Wizarding World', there are tons of references and bits of information that are bound to surface in the next film, especially concerning Albus Dumbledore. He's known to everyone as Harry Potter's headteacher at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, but before that era, Dumbledore was a professor to rebellious Newt – and even before that was friends with Grindelwald.
As with any huge franchise, there are a lot of things that are strictly official, as written or confirmed by the author of the novels, J.K Rowling, and things that are invented by fans in fan fiction and other works of culture. Here are the things we hope are confirmed in the new Fantastic Beasts film.
1. Dumbledore's family history
There were a couple of flashbacks in the original Harry Potter series to Dumbledore's childhood, but it wasn't extensively explored.
From the novels and films, we discovered that he suffered huge family loss growing up. He had a close, magical family: a younger brother and sister, Aberforth and Ariana, and two parents, Kendra and Percival. Percival was sent to Azkaban prison, after seeking revenge on a group of muggle boys who attacked Ariana.
This left Kendra to look after their children but once Dumbledore returned from Hogwarts, his sister accidentally killed Kendra due to her not being able to control her magic since her attack. Dumbledore was then left to begrudgingly look after his two younger siblings.
This was not even the start of his heartbreak, as Ariana was killed after a duel between Albus, Aberforth and the aforementioned Gerrett Grindelwald (more on him in a moment), but neither knows who's spell hit her. From that moment, Dumbledore was never the same.
We're anticipating that this will finally be explored in The Secrets of Dumbledore (the title has to be a clue), especially the material about his sister's death as that directly involved Grindelwald.
2. The backstory of Godric's Hollow
We saw this famous wizarding village in the Harry Potter films. It's where Harry lived as a baby with his parents, and the setting for that famous night where Voldemort tried to kill him.
Before Harry Potter's arrival, however, it was famous for being the quiet wizarding village in which Dumbledore lived with his mother and sister. They moved here to keep to themselves after rumours began that Percival Dumbledore hated Muggles, and to keep the young and confused Ariana safe.
You may remember Harry visited Godric's Hollow, but in Fantastic Beasts 3, we think we may see this village again due to a huge event in Dumbledore's life. This is where Ariana died in an event known as the 'Duel at Godric's Hollow'. Dumbledore and his friend Grindelwald were going to leave Godric's Hollow in search of the Deathly Hallows, to help them rule over Muggles.
Aberforth was unhappy that Dumbledore was going to leave their younger sister, so a duel broke out and one of the killing curses struck Ariana. Once this happened, Grindelwald fled from Britain. Godric's Hollow will almost certainly be seen, either in a flashback or a visit from Dumbledore, in the new film.
3. Dumbledore's sexuality
There's a lot of debate as to Albus Dumbledore's sexuality. Some have interpreted, from fan fiction, that Albus was in love with Grindelwald, and others say that they were just friends.
J.K Rowling herself believes that Dumbledore was in love with Grindelwald, and a lot of fans are hoping there is, at the very least, confirmation of this is the film.
4. Dumbledore's feelings about muggles
The reason Dumbledore and Grindelwald wanted to pursue the Deathly Hallows was to enslave Muggles and put Wizards in power. Due to his father going to prison for attacking Muggles, word got around at Hogwarts that Dumbledore, too, hated Muggles.
Many speculate that Dumbledore never hated Muggles and only went along with the plan due to being in love with Grindelwald. Will this be explained in the new Fantastic Beasts film? We're hoping so.
Tickets for Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore go on sale on Friday 18th March, ahead of the film's release on 8th April. Tweet us your Dumbledore theories and expectations @Cineworld.
An earlier version of this article was written for Cineworld by Nadine Shambrook. Follow her on Twitter.
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