Filming on Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 2 continues apace, and screenwriter/franchise creator J.K. Rowling has shared a new pic to prove it.
Posted via Twitter, the series mastermind offered an up-close look at her personalized set chair, which features the Rowling name flanked by two ice-white Griffins. It’s not a terribly revealing photo, but if nothing else, it’s a welcome reminder that Fantastic Beasts 2 is coming together at a brisk clip ahead of its theatrical release in 2018.
Poised to reunite with writer-director David Yates for the sequel, we know J.K. Rowling helped pen the screenplay for Newt Scamander’s next big-screen adventure, which has us all the more excited for Fantastic Beasts 2, given her work on the original was lauded with praise. The Warner Bros. tentpole has also brought in new personnel in the form of Jude Law, who goes from The Young Pope to the young Dumbledore, and Green Room‘s Callum Turner as Theseus Scamander, Newt’s older sibling.
Story-wise, Fantastic Beasts 2 will largely revolve around the romantic subplot involving the young Albus Dumbledore and his long-time frenemy, Gellert Grindelwald. Pirates mainstay Johnny Depp has been tasked with bringing the dark wizard to life, which ought to result in some cracking chemistry between Depp and Jude Law in little over a year’s time.
Here’s an extract of those story details, which pinpoint the sequel’s time period and its overarching narrative.
J.K. Rowling wrote the screenplay for the film, which opens in 1927, a few months after Newt helped to unveil and capture the infamous Dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald. However, as he promised he would, Grindelwald has made a dramatic escape and has been gathering more followers to his cause—elevating wizards above all non-magical beings. The only one who might be able to stop him is the wizard he once called his dearest friend, Albus Dumbledore.
But Dumbledore will need help from the wizard who had thwarted Grindelwald once before, his former student Newt Scamander. The adventure reunites Newt with Tina, Queenie and Jacob, but his mission will also test their loyalties as they face new perils in an increasingly dangerous and divided wizarding world. The film expands the wizarding world, moving from New York to London and on to Paris. There are also some surprising nods to the Harry Potter stories that will delight fans of the books and film series.
Poised to take a leaf out of Harry Potter‘s book when it comes to the title format, Fantastic Beasts 2 is expected to release on November 16th, 2018. Further entries into Warner’s prequel saga have been penciled in for 2020, 2022 and, finally, 2024.