Leta Lestrange (Zoe Kravitz) had a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, but it looks like she’ll have a much larger role in Fantastic Beasts 2.
In the first Fantastic Beasts movie, Leta Lestrange, a member of Bellatrix’s family, appears in a photo within Newt’s suitcase. It’s suggested that Newt and Leta had some sort of relationship, but the details are unknown. Clearly, Newt is still grappling with her emotionally.
Now, information gleamed from the Fantastic Beasts book The Case of Beasts has revealed a couple of new tidbits about Newt and Leta. These developments were originally noticed by Snitch Seeker.
- First of all, Newt had faced “proposed explusion” due to the “illegal possession of a magical beast causing endangerment of human life and violation of animal welfare.” The key word there is “proposed,” because…
- Newt may’ve been expelled from Hogwarts, but Dumbledore helped prevent it from being enforced. According to a page from The Case of Beasts, “The expulsion was never enforced — Hogwarts Professor Albus Dumbledore defended Newton resulting in his name being cleared.” This is interesting, as the movie makes us believe he actually WAS expelled.
- Newt’s file is dated with the year 1913, suggesting that the incident that led to the expulsion proposal occurred in either his fifth or sixth year at Hogwarts.
- What’s more, The Case of Beasts says that Leta “was the real reason Newt was forced to leave Hogwarts.” It prefaces the statement by saying “it was revealed” — implying that this may’ve been in J.K. Rowling’s original screenplay for Fantastic Beasts 1 at some point.
So there was a proposal to expel Newt from Hogwarts, but Dumbledore kept him there. However, Newt left anyway due to something Leta did.
The new tidbits line up with comments J.K. Rowling made on the Fantastic Beasts red carpet last month to Snitch Seeker. When asked why he was expelled, Rowling said, “He did something… well, he took the blame for something someone else did. That’s significant, but I can’t tell you why.” And how did he get to keep his wand despite being expelled? “That’s also significant, but I can’t tell you why.”
If we put all of the information together, it sounds like Newt took the blame for Leta letting beast(s) run wild.
In the same interview with Snitch Seeker, Rowling also revealed that “we will find out in Movie 2” where the Elder Wand is. OMG.