Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald takes us back to 1927 and finds Newt Scamander
caught up right in the thick of the dark wizard's mess.
So how do all the moving parts come together in the latest Harry Potter prequel?
Let's take a look at what happened at the tail end of The Crimes of Grindelwald.
This movie finally introduces us to Leta LeStrange, Newt's old friend from Hogwarts who's now
engaged to his brother, Theseus.
In the LeStrange family tomb, Leta reveals that she swapped her real brother Corvus out
for a less colicky baby - after which the ship they were on sank and her brother drowned.
The boy who lived was Credence, and he was given up for adoption after it was revealed
that he didn't belong to the LeStranges.
She does, however, have another living brother - Yusuf Kamas, who's on a mission to kill
Corvus.
When Leta sacrifices herself to allow all her new friends to escape Grindelwald's hall
of blue flames, the other characters might have thought she could have been the last
of the LeStrange's pure blood lineage.
Of course, Harry Potter fans know that's not the case, since Bellatrix LeStrange is such
a big part of the Boy Wizard's journey many years later.
We'll have to wait to see whether and how this loose thread ties up in later installments.
Another subplot of the film concerns Newt Scamander's reluctance to get involved in
the Aurors' effort to fight Grindelwald.
He's asked by the British Ministry of Magic to join forces with them in exchange for the
restoration of his international travel rights, but he refuses the offer, citing his disinterest
in choosing sides in whatever battle they're a part of.
But once he and Tina bear witness to what Grindelwald wants to do and is capable of
doing, he realizes that this is a fight in which no one can remain neutral.
After the loss of Leta, Newt tells Theseus that he is now ready to choose and fight for
the side of the Ministry against this encroaching threat.
The history of Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald isn't fully explored in The Crimes
of Grindelwald, but there are a few hints that the two were more than just best friends
during their younger years - it's heavily implied they were actually lovers who cared
very much for each other until their interests became so starkly divided.
Before their split, the two made a decision that they would never fight each other, and
that promise was sealed by a blood oath that has been cemented in a bauble worn by Grindelwald
at all times.
Even if that oath didn't stay Dumbledore's hand, he still seems uneasy about going to
war with Grindelwald.
His affection appears to have survived whatever caused their big split… at least for a time.
But once he retrieves the blood oath pendant and sees a way he can possibly break the pact,
Dumbledore's chains to Grindelwald may soon be broken, and he'd be able to fight his old
friend.
Throughout The Crimes of Grindelwald, Credence and Nagini are on the hunt for his real mother.
Once he finds the woman he's suspected to be his mother, he's disappointed to discover
that she's actually just the family's servant, and she's immediately killed off by a stray
spell from the Auror Grimmson.
Credence is later lured to the LeStrange family tomb, where he again hits a dead-end in his
search, but after hearing Grindelwald's speech about how wizards need to take over the world,
he's ready to declare his allegiance to Team Grindelwald.
Grindelwald reveals that Credence's real name is Aurelius Dumbledore and says that Albus
Dumbledore is out to destroy him.
The implication is that he is an as-yet-unrevealed third sibling or other relation to the Hogwarts
headmaster, which has left many Harry Potter fans scratching their heads about how that
timeline might have worked out - or if this is just another bit of trickery by Grindelwald
to make Credence resent Albus.
It's clear from the start of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald that the title villain
is one clever wizard.
He manages to escape the clutches of his captors and flits away to Paris, where he starts amassing
an army of wizards by promising them untold power and dominion over the known world.
"Do you think you can hold me?"
Meanwhile, all of his talk about the wizards' right to global superiority is immediately
reminiscent of the Axis powers in World War II.
If the reference wasn't already clear enough, though, the film crystallizes the connection
by showing scenes of the exact conflict such ideology led to, with visions of the city
being destroyed by air raids, an atomic bomb being detonated in Japan, and even a glimpse
of Holocaust victims being marched to the camps - scenes which, ironically, Grindelwald
says his planned takeover of the world will specifically prevent.
Regardless of whether those images were necessary, however, the film made its point by declaring
this war to be a battle between the very ideas of good and evil.
Of all the animals that are introduced in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald,
perhaps the phoenix is the most significant.
To supplement Grindelwald's claim that Credence is a member of the Dumbledore family, he shows
him how a baby bird becomes the fiery creature, saying that the animals are known to come
to any member of the Dumbledore lineage in their hour of need.
His words are reminiscent of something Albus Dumbledore had said about his own phoenix,
Fawkes, in the Harry Potter series.
It's unclear whether this new bird will bear any relation to the bird that Dumbledore kept
in his office for all those years, but if it does, the creature may end up being one
of the few characters who helps bridge the gap between the stories of Harry Potter and
Fantastic Beasts.
We'll see.