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After a long delay and a controversial recasting, it’s finally time to return to the Wizarding World in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, the third entry into the Fantastic Beasts series and twelfth Wizarding World film overall.

In this instalment, Gellert Grindelwald’s (Mads Mikkelsen) influence begins to spread across the Wizarding World as his followers gain access to prominent political positions. Meanwhile, Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) has entrusted Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) and his companions with a mission to halt Grindelwald’s rise.

A Worthy Successor

The film is by no means the best Fantastic Beasts movie; I still believe that title belongs to the first instalment, but it is a considerable step above the last and that is clearly because of Steve Kloves, who after penning seven of the eight Harry Potter movies, returns to aide J.K. Rowling in bringing the franchise back on track. As an experienced screenwriter, it only took Kloves one movie to do what Rowling tried to do in two, and he helps the audience return to the magical world in a swift and not as convoluted manner.

The last movie, The Crimes of Grindelwald, lacked both quality, coherent storytelling, and any of Grindelwald’s crimes. However, The Secrets of Dumbledore steps up where the last film failed — it’s a far better film, the story is easier to follow despite still being somewhat complicated, and we are let in on some canon-changing secrets.

Mads Mikkelsen as Gellert Grindelwald in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of the Dumbledore.

The Crimes of Grindelwald

The Fantastic Beasts franchise has been marred with controversies, and the more movies they make, the more seem to pop up. For The Secrets of Dumbledore, the controversy lies with the firing of Johnny Depp, who played Gellert Grindelwald in the previous two movies. I’m not going to speak on the decisions as to why Depp was fired and the role recast, but I did always think he was miscast.

Mads Mikkelsen takes over as Grindelwald and instantly gives not only one of the best performances in a Fantastic Beasts movie but in a Wizarding World movie in general. With sexy suave and charm, which Depp lacked in his cooky and occasionally scene-chewing performance, Mikkelsen recreates Grindelwald as a smooth-talking politician who may turn on you at any minute.

Unlike the last film, which despite the subtitle, didn’t contain many crimes of Grindelwald, The Secrets of Dumbledore shows Grindewald getting up to a lot of mischiefs. So much so that it makes the previous film’s title even more redundant than it already was.

Dan Fogler, Jessica Williams, Eddie Redmayne, and Callum Turner in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of the Dumbledore.

The Wider Wizarding World

Eddie Redmayne returns as Newt Scamander, and he continues the tradition of allowing the supporting cast to outshine him in almost every way. Redmayne isn’t bad in these movies; it’s just that everyone else around him is better, and with The Secrets of Dumbledore, he’s outperformed in almost every corner by virtually every main character.

I didn’t care too much for Dan Fogler’s Jacob Kowalski (Newt’s Muggle best friend) in the last two films, but he was one of the finer points of this instalment. Fogler has managed to cement himself as a necessary and integral cog in the Fantastic Beasts machine, and after this movie, I don’t think it would be the same without him. He brings most of the movie’s humour and emotion, and for the first time, I found myself missing his character whenever he wasn’t on screen.

Jude Law (Albus Dumbledore) and Richard Coyle (Aberforth Dumbledore) in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of the Dumbledore.
The Dumbledores

Jude Law reprises his role as the younger and hotter Albus Dumbledore, joined by Richard Coyle as his brother, Aberforth. I didn’t care much for Law in the last film, but in The Secrets of Dumbledore, he steps up his game and delivers an excellent performance that allows us to now truly see him as the younger counterpart to the older Albus we know and love from the Harry Potter movies.

Ciarán Hinds essentially only had a glorified cameo when he played Aberforth in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, thanks to his brief role that allows Richard Coyle to fashion the character into one of his own makings. The sombre and distressed Aberforth gives The Secrets of Dumbledore some emotional gravitas that Ezra Miller wishes they could provide this franchise.

As for Miller, they walk around like a stoic Pod Person, adding nothing much except my want for their character to just die. Credence Barebone’s role is stripped back massively, and for a good reason; Miller’s real-life controversy aside, they add very little to the story no matter how important they have become. Nonetheless, Miller is but a reasonably nice-looking distraction to an otherwise okay film.

20 Years in the Making
Jessica Williams (Eulalie Hicks) and Callum Turner (Theseus Scamander) in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore.

After a brief cameo in The Crimes of Grindelwald, Jessica Williams is given a far more prominent role as Professor Eulalie “Lally” Hicks, a charms teacher from Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (the United States’ equivalent of Hogwarts). And I have to congratulate J.K Rowling on creating a Black character who not only has a regular name (for Wizarding standards) but is the best-written character of colour she has ever written!

It took you more than twenty years, Joanne, but you did it! You wrote a good Black character!

Outside of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the Wizarding World franchise hasn’t been particularly kind to characters of colour, particularly Black women. Still, Eulalie Hicks is the first lead Black woman with lines in a Wizarding World movie to make it out of two movies alive and, unlike one character in the previous film, doesn’t suffer any sexual abuse – an element that was massively out of place for a franchise such as this.

As for her performance, Williams shines in the role of the most compelling American witch we’ve had the pleasure of meeting so far. Eulalie Hicks is courageous, determined, and akin to classic characters from the original Harry Potter series. I would go as far as to say that if Warner Bros. is as hellbent on continuing this seemingly slow-dying franchise as they seem to be, then Jessica Williams appears to be the way to go, whether it be a movie or a series.

Katherine Waterson’s Tina Goldstein in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016).

Where Are You, Tina?

Throughout the movie, one thing was evident — Katherine Waterson’s Tina Goldstein was noticeably absent with only a fleeting cameo in two short scenes, plus the occasional glimpse at a moving image of her within Newt’s magical suitcase.

Waterson’s absence is obviously a punishment for her openly speaking out against J.K. Rowling’s online anti-Transgender views, and it’s even more apparent when you factor in Victoria Yeates’s Bunty (Newt’s assistant). It’s clear from the start that Bunty’s role was initially written for Tina until she was cut and replaced. It cannot be understated how much she served as a pseudo-replacement for Waterson, and it was so glaring that it became an ongoing distraction, which is sad for Yeates because she does an excellent job in her now-expanded role.

The Future of a Franchise

If the Fantastic Beasts movies wish to succeed, they need to nix J.K Rowling’s involvement. Many people will be unhappy with those words, but it cannot be ignored that Rowling’s controversial views are continuously tarnishing the franchise. It hurts even more when you consider that she has now started having conversations with notorious anti-gay activists, all while trying to push the “Dumbledore is gay” narrative, which is shown off more in this movie than any other. However, members of the LGBTQ+ community will still leave disappointed because it doesn’t go far beyond Albus telling Gellert that “he was in love with him”. Despite the subtle acknowledgement, it’s still disappointing to see how much they jump around the alleged sexualities of the two characters with scenes short enough to be cut for the highly homophobic countries.

Another thing they have to improve is the visual effects. I don’t know what happened, but The Secrets of Dumbledore contains some of the worst visual effects we’ve seen since the earlier Harry Potter films. The blatant overuse of greenscreen to the reliance on slow-motion effects helped make this one of the ugliest Wizarding World films, thankfully we have expert production designers Stuart Craig and Neil Lamont, set decorator Anna Pinnock, and costume designer Colleen Atwood on hand to help even out the ugly with some rather pretty sets and costumes.

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore is a vast improvement for the franchise, but it can’t escape being the middle film of a series that has already overstayed its welcome.

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