The Craziest Things We Noticed In The New 'Fantastic Beasts 2' Trailer!

Yesterday (September 25), the final trailer for Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald was released, and oh boy, is it intense. Being a huge nerd for all things Wizarding World related, I had to watch this multiple times to make sure I caught everything. Now, let’s break this thing down and present a few theories.

First, we see a conversation between our returning hero and fantastic beast nerd Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) and a young Albus Dumbledore (hellllooooo Jude Law). Dumbledore is telling Newt about a safehouse in Paris, “should things at some point go terribly wrong.” Apparently it’s a good place to go for a cup of tea. Noted. Part of me is thinking that Dumbledore knows something that we (and Newt) don’t, and maybe someone of importance is hiding out at the safehouse… hmm. Spill the tea, Dumbledore.

We then start to hear the beginning of Gellert Grindelwald’s (Johnny Depp) monologue. It sounds as though he’s addressing his followers, those who believe Wizards are better than and superior to Muggles.

AND. THEN. We see our beloved Credence (Ezra Miller) at the circus. He whispers “Nagini” and suddenly the performer in front of him (Claudia Kim) changes before our eyes from woman to snake. I have a lot of questions about this. First being, is Nagini actually an animagus? Like McGonagall was as a cat? Can she just willingly change from snake to human? How does she eventually end up with Voldemort and become a horcrux? I have so many questions. Too many questions. Hopefully the movie can answer them!

Grindelwald’s monologue continues, “The moment has come to take our rightful place in the world, where we wizards are free. Join me, or die.” The magical and non-magical worlds have been at peace for over a century now, and it seems that Grindelwald is working to tear that peace apart and take over. Okay, soooo… he seems like a scary Voldemort-Hitler hybrid. If you know the Harry Potter series, you already know Grindelwald is a bad dude that got into a big fight with Dumbledore back in the day because he hated Muggles. But dang, this trailer really starts to show JUST how evil he is. It gives me the heebie jeebies.

During this, we get a few shots of Grindelwald in a carriage commandeered by thestrals, we see Hogwarts(!!!!), chaos around Paris with Tina (Katherine Waterston), and Grindelwald just stirring up trouble. Also, some super scary black silky beings are just flying all around, and they look terrifying. Like dementors, but more silky and like they’ve been covered in fabric. Who are they and what purpose do they serve in this plot? Are they with Grindelwald?

We then go back to another conversation between Newt and Dumbledore. It’s clear that Dumbledore wants Newt to hunt down Grindelwald, unclear to Newt if that means he’ll have to kill Grindelwald when he finds him. Newt asks why Dumbledore can’t just hunt Grindelwald himself, with Dumbledore replying “I cannot move against Grindelwald; it has to be you.” We then see an even younger, late-teens Dumbledore looking into the Mirror of Erised, with a young Grindelwald looking back at him, with then Jude Law’s Dumbledore looking into the mirror with Depp’s Grindelwald gazing back.

We’ve been hinted in the past that these two had a history, maybe one that was even somewhat romantic (at least on Dumbledore’s end), so this seems to be a nod to that, showing that Grindelwald was what Dumbledore most desired when they were young, when they were friends and wanted to do everything together. My theory is that, when he’s seeing Grindelwald in the mirror now, it’s because he wants to hunt him down and stop him from destroying everything. Sadly, I think this is about as much as we’ll get as to nods or indicators of their romance or Dumbledore’s sexuality, but it’ll be interesting to see if my theory is right about Dumbledore seeing Grindelwald in the mirror now because he wants to stop him.

Then, we get a break in the tension with a bit of comedy! Our favorite duo, Newt and Jacob (Dan Fogler), are walking together. Newt asks if Jacob has motion sickness, to which Jacob replies that he doesn’t do well on boats. “You’ll be fine,” Newt replies, grabbing Jacob’s hand, stepping into a bucket, and whooshing away via a portkey. I love this bromance, and I’m also wondering how Jacob and Newt managed to become friends again in Newt’s magical journeys and adventures, considering he got obliviated at the end of the last movie so he wouldn’t remember any of the magic or the wizards he met. Nevertheless, I love seeing this duo back together for another magical escapade.

Ugh, here comes my favorite moment of the trailer! We’re not exactly sure why it has to be Newt that hunts Grindelwald, but Dumbledore might be giving us a little hint here, telling Newt what he most admires about him: “You do not seek power; you simply ask, is a thing right.” So true. Our sweet Newt, a Hufflepuff hero by all counts, this could not be more accurate. What a great role model for all the Hufflepuffs out there! It also tells us a lot about Dumbledore, who used to seek power and greatness, but seriously had things blow back in his face (*cough cough getting his sister Ariana killed because of his fight with Grindelwald*). It goes to show how highly Dumbledore thinks of Newt, and I think it’s great.

And then, we finally see Newt’s brother, Theseus (Callum Turner). Theseus tells him that, eventually, there will come a time when Newt has to choose a side, to which Newt is like “um... no.”

Then it’s a whole montage of lots of action, spells, and lots of beasts! Some of the action seems to be taking place in an amphitheatre type place, we see some action at Hogwarts (even Dumbledore teaching a lesson in class), and action at what we can assume is the French Ministry of Magic (I wonder if we'll see any of Beauxbatons Academy, the French equivalent to Hogwarts... although it's not located anywhere near Paris, so maybe not). We can see that beasts new and old will come into play on this journey. Expect lots of action from this film, and a darker turn from the last time we saw Newt and the gang.

As we reach the end of the trailer, we hear the most intense, battle-like version of the classic “Hedwig’s Theme”, and then, to break up all the tension and darkness we just saw, we see a silly moment between Newt, Tina, and Theseus, where Newt binds his brother to a chair, jokingly calling it the best moment of his life.

And BOOM, trailer’s over. WHAT?!!!! I need to know what happens. This movie looks intense. What do you guys think? Do you have any theories about what the heck is going to happen in this film?

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwaldcomes to theaters November 16. Until then, Wizard on!

(Image via Warner Bros. Pictures)

- Brooke Sharland, YH Contributing Writer