Jude Law and Mads Mikkelsen Face Off in the New 'Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore' Trailer
Four years after 'The Crimes of Grindelwald', the 'Wizarding World' franchise returns for its 11th film.
For diehard fans of the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts films, one type of movie magic stands out above the rest. That'd be the kind that's had viewers flocking to Wizarding World flicks for over two decades now, and also inspired plenty of "accio April 2022!" chants over the past few months — if only in your head — as Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore gets closer to reaching cinemas.
The third film in the Fantastic Beasts series and 11th in the broader Wizarding World franchise — aka the full on-screen world that's sprung up around The Boy Who Lived — The Secrets of Dumbledore arrives four years after 2018's Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. That's a hefty wait, and while the movie's release is still over a month away, a new trailer has just dropped to help fill the gap.
Following on from The Secrets of Dumbledore's first sneak peek back in December 2021, the latest trailer gives viewers what they want: Jude Law's (The Third Day) young Albus Dumbledore facing off against Mads Mikkelsen's (Riders of Justice) evil Gellert Grindelwald, as the franchise has been working towards since 2016's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Of course, it wasn't always Mikkelsen playing the sinister dark wizard who just keeps trying to control all things magical, and wreak havoc on everything in general, with both Colin Farrell (Voyagers) and Johnny Depp (Minamata) previously doing the honours in past instalments.
Regardless of who's playing him, Grindelwald still wants to start a war. Yes, he's solemnly up to no good, and his devoted following is only growing. So, as both trailers for The Secrets of Dumbledore have shown, it's up to future Hogwarts headmaster Dumbledore, magizoologist Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne, The Trial of the Chicago 7), and his pals Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston, The Third Day), Queenie Goldstein (Alison Sudol, Between Us) and Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler, The Walking Dead) to try to save the day.
Ezra Miller (Zack Snyder's Justice League) also returns as Credence/Aurelius Dumbledore, while Jessica Williams (Love Life) follows up her brief appearance in The Crimes of Grindelwald by return as Ilvermorny professor Eulalie 'Lally' Hicks.
And making the magic happen behind the lens is David Yates, who has directed every Wizarding World film — Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts alike — since 2007's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
Obviously, when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2 reached cinemas 11 years back, it was never going to be the end of the on-screen story, which is why the Fantastic Beasts series — which took an illustrated guide book about magical creatures, spun a story about its author Scamander and turned it into a Harry Potter prequel saga — exists. Still, conjuring up more enchantment hasn't been quite so straightforward this time around, and how you feel about the two Fantastic Beasts flicks so far might just depend on how spellbound you are with everything HP. But this franchise-within-a-franchise was always going to go on, with The Secrets of Dumbledore the third entry in the planned five-film series.
Check out the trailer for The Secrets of Dumbledore below:
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore opens in cinemas Down Under on April 7, 2022.