The Fantastic Beasts films are set many years prior to the events of the Potter novels, which were a big-screen sensation from 2001 to 2011. Now, a new featurette – introduced by Jude Law and Eddie Redmayne – reveals how some of the characters and devices connect between the two properties.
Watch the brilliant new featurette above.
Jude Law plays Albus Dumbledore in the film; the part famously played by Richard Harris in the first two Potter movies and Michael Gambon thereafter.
Claudia Kim, meanwhile, is the human form of Nagini.
Inflicted with a Maledictus curse, fans know she will become a full-time serpent at some point; and become Voldemort’s sidekick.
Zoë Kravitz plays Leta Lestrange; who shares a surname with Helena Bonham Carter’s repugnant Bellatrix Lestrange in the Potter stories.
Fantastic Beasts 2 is out this week and has sharply divided critics thus far.
On Rotten Tomatoes, it currently has a 57% score, indicating a clear split between positive and negative reviews.
On one hand, The Hollywood Reporter enthused: “That the film remains enticing despite its evolving, still-pallid hero speaks to Rowling’s storytelling strengths.”
But on the other, New York Times complained: “Rowling has surrendered to her maximalist tendencies and so cluttered up the story that you spend far too much time trying to untangle who did what to whom and why.”
Big twists are expected to be revealed over the course of the running time, with Eddie Redmayne asking fans in a social media video to keep the spoilers to themselves.
It’s thought that as many as five Fantastic Beasts movies will be made. Two down, three to go.
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is out on Friday.