Nine Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them character posters have arrived, and there’s a lot to unpack.
Normally there’s little to say about character posters. They’re usually very simple, and they’re often seen as cheap marketing material. Like, how many posters need to exist for a single movie?
But we’re not thinking that this time! Warner Brothers has spent a lot of time on the just-released Fantastic Beasts character posters, putting plenty of details in each one. Let’s take a look!
Newt, Porpentina, Seraphina, and Queenie
Not much to say here, but I appreciate all the details behind each of the characters. Note that each poster not only includes the character’s name, but their role in the film. Harry Potter fans will get excited by Queenie’s “Legilimens” title since it’s a familiar term from the Harry Potter books.
Mary Lou and her son Credence
Mary Lou’s poster confirms what we’ve already known: This woman is dark. A total — excuse my language — bitch. Why do I use such a mean word? She doesn’t want witches and wizards in existence, and appears to resort to fear mongering.
As for her son Credence? Well, bad haircuts seem to run in the family. All signs point toward Credence breaking away from his mother and teaming up with Graves (below). In fact, Credence may be a wizard himself — which mom surely won’t be happy about.
Gnarlak
This goblin, who runs a speakeasy, must have an important role in Fantastic Beasts if he gets his own poster. Note the “Wanted” posters for both Tina and Newt in the background.
Gnarlak’s CGI does not look as good as it does in the trailer — here, he’s as realistic looking as a character in a Shrek movie.
Jacob
He’s the boy with the bread.
Graves and the Deathly Hallows
Last but certainly not least: Graves. We know he’s a highly-skilled Auror working for MACUSA as their Director of Magical Security. Okay cool, nothing to see here… OH WAIT THERE’S A DEATHLY HALLOWS NECKLACE DANGLING TO HIS RIGHT.
There were no Hot Topics open for business in 1920s New York — Graves likely has a much better reason for being in possession of jewelry depicting the iconic Deathly Hallows symbol.
The first hints arrived last week, when the final Fantastic Beasts trailer suggested that MACUSA President Seraphina Picquery thinks Graves is up to not good. You see, he wants to open up relations between wizards and muggles, and Seraphina is linking it to similar behavior from Grindelwald. “This could mean war,” she warns. We theorized about Grindelwald’s involvement with Graves last week.
So how do the Deathly Hallows play into the story? We simply won’t know until we see the movie. But here’s what we do know: Grindelwald was after them (just like Dumbledore!), and Graves seems to be taking an interest in them as well.
Graves’ Hallows necklace further proves than Grindelwald and Dumbledore are going to have very important roles in the overall Fantastic Beasts trilogy. What’s new here is that someone in America likes the three magical objects just as much as classic Harry Potter characters do, and said character has a starring role in the new movie. Ohboyohboyohboyohboy.
Further confirming Grindelwald’s increasingly apparent presence in the film, Warner Brothers has released a new synopsis which features this line in the first paragraph:
And the powerful, dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald, after wreaking havoc in Europe, has slipped away…and is now nowhere to be found.
Here’s the new Fantastic Beasts synopsis in full:
There are growing dangers in the wizarding world of 1926 New York. Something mysterious is leaving a path of destruction in the streets, threatening to expose the wizarding community to the Second Salemers, a fanatical faction of No-Majs (American for Muggles) bent on eradicating them. And the powerful, dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald, after wreaking havoc in Europe, has slipped away…and is now nowhere to be found.
Unaware of the rising tensions, Newt Scamander arrives in the city nearing the end of a global excursion to research and rescue magical creatures, some of which are safeguarded in the hidden dimensions of his deceptively nondescript leather case. But potential disaster strikes when unsuspecting No-Maj Jacob Kowalski inadvertently lets some of Newt’s beasts loose in a city already on edge—a serious breach of the Statute of Secrecy that former Auror Tina Goldstein jumps on, seeing her chance to regain her post. However, things take an ominous turn when Percival Graves, the enigmatic Director of Magical Security at MACUSA (Magical Congress of the United States of America), casts his suspicions on both Newt…and Tina.
Now allied, Newt and Tina, together with Tina’s sister, Queenie, and their new No-Maj friend, Jacob, form a band of unlikely heroes, who must recover Newt’s missing beasts before they come to harm. But the stakes are higher than these four outsiders—now branded fugitives—ever imagined, as their mission puts them on a collision course with dark forces that could push the wizarding and No-Maj worlds to the brink of war.
Fantastic Beasts enters theaters and (hopefully) blows our minds on November 18.
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