We now have a title for the delayed Fantastic Beasts 3 and as we now start waiting for the first trailer, we might as well delve into what the title tells us about the third movie.
Warner Bros has confirmed the next adventures of Newt Scamander and his magical buddies is called Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore. The thoughts of Harry Potter fans will instantly turn to the one and only Albus Dumbledore and might hope that, finally, the series will address his sexuality.
One of the longest-lasting controversies of the Harry Potter franchise is its inability to directly confirm that Albus Dumbledore is gay. He was revealed to be gay by JK Rowling only after the book series was finished, and we know that he had a relationship with Gellert Grindelwald.
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However, The Crimes of Grindelwald only paid the slightest attention to this and fell short of outright confirming the nature of their relationship. Perhaps The Secrets of Dumbledore will explore this further, but while we'd love to see it (although less keen on it being framed as a 'secret'), we reckon the title is referring to a different Dumbledore altogether.
A large part of The Crimes of Grindelwald centred on who Ezra Miller's Credence Barebone really was. We knew he was an Obscurial and that Grindelwald had plans for him, and we had assumed that he was the younger half-brother of Leta Lestrange (Zoë Kravitz), something that she denied.
Leta explained that when she was on the boat with her brother to America, she swapped the baby with a better-behaved one. Problem was that the ship sank, her brother drowned and the other baby was taken to the US and raised as Credence.
According to Grindelwald (if we believe him, that is), Credence is none other than Aurelius Dumbledore. It was the big cliffhanger of the sequel, especially as Potter fans had no idea that Albus had a long-lost brother. We have no idea what Grindelwald plans to use 'Aurelius' for, but we imagine it will spell trouble for Albus.
We know from the first plot synopsis that The Secrets of Dumbledore will see Albus send Newt and his allies on a dangerous mission. The aim is to stop Grindelwald's plot to seize control of the wizarding world, but it seems that Albus is staying on the sidelines and letting Newt deal with it.
This could well be because of the Unbreakable Vow that prevents him from ever fighting Grindelwald, meaning that Albus is using Newt in the same way that Grindelwald will likely recruit 'Aurelius' to fight for him. But what if the title hints that the reason is something different altogether?
Maybe Albus knew all along who Credence really was and if he gets too involved in the fight, the secret will be confirmed along with the fact he knew and did nothing. Equally, the "secrets" could refer to 'Aurelius' and reveal why we've never heard of him before.
While there will be some Fantastic Beasts fans disappointed that it's set to be another movie where the story isn't really about Newt, you can understand why the series might want to tie closer to Harry Potter canon.
The Crimes of Grindelwald was a box-office and critical disappointment, putting the future of the series in doubt. With the unexpected delays, it means there's a three-and-a-half year gap between the two movies and there could well have been apathy about seeing the third movie in an underperforming series.
By looping in Dumbledore and even including the iconic name in the title, it's sure to at least create an intrigue for Potter fans to see the third movie: Does Albus Dumbledore really have a long-lost brother and why have we never heard of him before? Is there another secret we don't know?
Whether that will then lead to an outrage over how it contradicts canon remains to be seen, but that's a problem for another day.
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore is set for release on April 15, 2022.
Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
