‘Fantastic Beasts 3’ Trailer Digs Into the ‘Secrets of Dumbledore’ With Intense Showdown

Warner Bros. dropped a new trailer for Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore on Tuesday, hyping up the fight between Dumbledore and Grindlewald even further. It is a bit more lighthearted than the previous trailer and gives more hints about the movie’s plot. Of course, it is also drawing even more criticism down on J.K. Rowling and her franchise.

Fantastic Beasts 3 will apparently center on around a showdown between Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) and Gellert Grindlewald (played for the first time by Mads Mikkelsen after his recasting). It’s unclear if this is the climactic battle that finally nullified the threat ofGrindelwald as described in the main Harry Potter series. Both the movies and the books explained that, because of their romantic history, Dumbledore couldn’t bring himself to confront Grindlewald face-to-face until it was almost too late. That may be changing in this movie since the two can be seen trading spells in the new trailer.

If that’s the case, it raises some questions about what the next two installments in the franchise have in store. Warner Bros. has announced a slate of 5 Fantastic Beasts movies in total and has shown no signs of changing those plans even as Rowling comes under fire for her transphobic public comments. Without the promise of a duel between Dumbledore and Grindelwald, the next two movies would need to lean heavily on the other characters in the franchise.

Fantastic Beasts centers mostly on Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) – a rebellious zoologist who uses his intimate knowledge of magical beasts to outsmart opponents like Grindelwald. This trailer puts a lot of focus on Newt’s muggle – or, no-maj – friend Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler) who appears to somehow gain magical abilities in this movie. It’s not clear how this is possible, and the trailer likely emphasizes it to try and entice fans with the simple mystery of how they will pull this off without completely changing the canon.

The movie also sees Ezra Miller return as Credence Barebone – the uber-powerful wizard with a traumatic, mysterious past – and Alison Sudol returning as Queenie – the empathic witch enticed into supporting Grindelwald for all the wrong reasons – and Callum Turner as Newt’s brother Theseus Scamander. New cast members include Victoria Yeates, Poppy Corby-Tuech, Aleksandr Kuznetsov, and Dave Wong.

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore premieres on Friday, April 15 only in theaters. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald are both streaming now on HBO Max.