Alright, fine. It turns out Fantastic Beasts 2 won't be called More Fantastic Beasts and Where Else to Find Them. Warner Bros. Entertainment announced today that the film is officially titled Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald and that it's coming out on November 16, 2018. The studio led the announcement with this fun little animated intro graphic, which is also your first good look at Jude Law as a young(er) Albus Dumbledore.
In one year, return to the Wizarding World with Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. #MagicInProgress #FantasticBeasts pic.twitter.com/8aWj8xhGj5November 16, 2017
Here's a better look at Young-bledore via official Potter fansite Pottermore. That corduroy trenchcoat must weigh a ton, but no matter; Dumbledore's always gotta be the most stylish guy in the room and I respect that.
And here's the official synopsis straight from WB:
"Jude Law plays a young Albus Dumbledore, taking on the mantle of one of J.K. Rowling’s most beloved characters; Ezra Miller makes a return as the enigmatic Credence, whose fate was unknown at the end of the first film; Claudia Kim appears as a Maledictus, the carrier of a blood curse that destines her ultimately to transform into a beast; Zoë Kravitz plays Leta Lestrange, who had once been close to Newt Scamander but is now engaged to his brother; Callum Turner joins the cast as Newt’s older brother, Theseus Scamander, a celebrated war hero and the head of the Auror Office at the British Ministry of Magic; Katherine Waterston returns as Tina Goldstein, who has been reinstated as an Auror for MACUSA; Eddie Redmayne stars again as wizarding world Magizoologist Newt Scamander, who has now gained fame in the wizarding world as the author of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them; Dan Fogler reprises the role of the only No-Maj in the group, Jacob Kowalski; Alison Sudol reprises the part of Tina’s free-spirited sister, Queenie Goldstein, a Legilimens who can read minds; and Johnny Depp returns as the powerful dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald in Warner Bros. Pictures’ Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.”
The synopsis doesn't mention this, but we also know Fantastic Beasts 2 will include some flashback scenes featuring younger Newt, Dumbledore, and other characters. If Harry Potter keeps going deeper into the past like this I'm going to start expecting a Merlin cameo.
Images: Warner Bros.
