Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald type Movie

Here’s something we haven’t heard much about concerning Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald — the actual beasts.

The first film in the Harry Potter sequel franchise, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, was quite creature-focused as the plot revolved around Newt Scamander struggling to round up his magical escapees in New York City. Given the sequel’s higher global stakes — Newt and Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) teaming to stop the evil wizard Gellert Grindelwald (Johnny Depp) in Paris — fans have wondered if the sequel will have as many beasts as the first film and whether they will be as crucial to the storyline.

The answers: Yes … and No.

“There are as many beasts in the film as in the first,” executive producer David Heyman told EW exclusively. “But the main driver in the first film was finding the beasts. That’s not the driver in this film, it’s not a central part of the plot. But beasts feature in the film and feature strongly.”

So just as many beasts as last time, numbers wise, just not as much of a focus in the story — which makes sense.

As for what familiar beasts might make an appearance, Redmayne mentioned a couple species.

“There’s a Chinese creature that’s formidable,” he teases. “There are some of the old favorites: The Niffler is back and causing havoc. As is Picket.”

The Niffler, you’ll recall, is the mischievous black rodent-like creature with a penchant for anything shiny, while Pickett is the green plant-like Bowtruckle that Newt kept in his pocket.

Crimes of Grindelwald is released Nov. 16, 2018.

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