“Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” marks the return to Harry Potter prequel franchise that launched back in 2016. Now as the prequel series shifts away from Newt Scamander’s (Eddie Redmayne) search for the titular creatures, we are starting to see a focus more on a much younger Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) and his complicated relationship with Gellert Grindlewald (Mad Mikkelsen).
ThatsItLA joined their fellow journalists at the “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” press conference this past week when they got to talk to the cast and crew about the film, the evolution of its storytelling, the character’s trajectory, and more.
1 – Dumbledore Finding An Identity.
Although we’d like to think of Dumbledore as this wise sage with a bit of a mischievous side, the headmaster of Hogwarts was not always that way. But by setting the prequels during the early 20th century and focusing more on his youth, we see a Dumbledore who is still trying to figure out who he is. “One of the joys that David really allowed me to investigate was, rather than feeling the weight of the brilliant performances, by Michael Gambon and Richard Harris, was to really go back and understand that he’s not the fully formed Dumbledore of the Harry Potter books and films, he is a man still finding his way still confronting and resolving his demons,” Law said. ” I suppose that in this film in particular, he’s facing the past. He’s facing himself and his own guilt. But if there were a quality that links him, I would say it’s his mischievousness, his humor, and his belief in people his belief. He sees the positive you think how Dumbledore believed in Draco, he believed even in Tom Riddle. You know, he sees the good or the potential good. And I think that’s something that he’s always had.
But getting to play Albus Dumbledore was a dream come true. “I felt like I’d been in preparation subconsciously, from the minute I started reading the books to my children. And gosh, well, there’s just so much in the character to mine and to investigate as an actor,” Law continued. “And that’s before you even get into this extraordinary world of magic. That’s just him as a human. But the magic is really fun too.”
2 – The Nature of Villainy
There’s so much more to a villain than the act itself. Behind all of that is a misunderstood person with a warped view of the world and how that perception shaped the person to become a primary antagonist. So for Mikkelsen, he saw there was more to Grindlewald than a revolutionist trying to remove the Muggles from power to prevent the world’s destruction. “For me and Jude, we had quite a few conversations about what that relationship looked liked. So my character is shaped out of that world. Nobody actually in history starts out saying, ‘I’m gonna be the bad guy, right,'” Mikkelsen asked. “So we have to figure out what his mission is, what’s his goal? Why is he trying to make the world a better place? In that manner? You know. So, I think that they started out having a common and a mutual goal as as young adults or big children, and then it got blurry. The ways of getting to that goal were different than they imagined.”
3 – Heroic Rise
Bunty Broadacre (Victoria Yeates) has played a tiny supportive role in the Fantastic Beasts franchise for a long time. Bunty often leads a hand to help Newt and his allies, has a more prominent role in “The Secrets of Dumbledore.” Rather than just be another beast helper, she assists Newt and his allies in an effort to stop Grindlewald and his goal to rid the worwld of Muggles. “She’s just given a more important role. She grows in confidence. She would do anything for her beloved Newt, anything,” Yeates said. “But you just see her step out of the shadows more. And Dumbledore gives her a mission, which will be very important to the film without giving too much away.
But when it comes to her relationship with Newt, that has also changed throughout these films. Now she idolizes him. She has watched him. You know, for” most of her life growing up in Hogwarts seeing this, you know, she loves beasts. And she’s happier in the basement with beasts. And she wants to be like him be as good as him,” Yeates said. “And so there’s a lot of different levels of love, I think, a lot of respect. And, you know, happens, doesn’t it unrequited love? I mean, it has been eight years, but um, I hope she’ll get there. I hope she’ll branch out at some point. But you know, she just needs more time than other people to branch out. She’s happy. She’s happy. She’s happy in his shadow.”
4 – Finding Virtuous Value
For the most part, films are meant to be an escape from the horrors that exist outside of the theater, where they can celebrate values and representation. And director David Yates sees how the Harry Poter films have been able to capture the spirit of creating that safe space for all to experience. “I think what’s enduring about these movies, I think they just, they become a safe place to go to for lots of people, they celebrate certain values, loyalty, love, friendship, empowering the outsider, the person you always underestimate things that, you know, resonate for a lot of people out in the real world, and, and they do it in this magical space,” Yates said. “So I think it’s sort of, sort of, yeah, it’s, it’s a beautiful thing to be part of stories that create a safe space for some people when they when they go into the movie theater to watch them, you know, and I’m very proud of that.”
5 – Wand of Passage
Muggles may not be able to partake in any wizarding affairs, but for Jacob Kowlaski (Don Fogler), he’s found himself in the middle of quite a few wizarding affairs simply by getting caught up in Newt’s affairs. But he’s only acted as a spectator, unable to get involved with any magical heroics, until now. “Yeah, I watched, for two movies, everyone get a while, and then they go, and they go to their training sessions. And, and I always wondered, maybe one day they’ll let me like maybe someone will drop one, and I’ll be able to like pick it up and give it back to them or something. And I felt like it was just an enormous honor to be handed this one from Dumbledore,” Fogler said. ” I just thought, man, there’s a lot of potential for some great comedy and action moments which are in the film with this muggle just trying to figure it out.”
And Fogler recognizes that the weight of the responsibility that comes with having a wand was not lost on Kowlaski. But that his inexperience does not put him on the same level as the other wizards around him. “If you see, Jacob, he was not given any training, so he just kind of, he like holds it like soldier would hold a gun or something,” he said. “Yeah, it was, it was just so cool. I felt like I was, you know, you know, it’s like being in a western and not having a gun or, you know, as suddenly I was or being in Star Wars not having a lightsaber. Like I was handed a lightsaber. So, you know, for me, that’s huge.”
6 – Cultivating a Relationship
While many Harry Potter fans had an idea of how Dumbledore and Grindlewald’s relationship could be visualized in the prequel films, it was important for the actors portraying their respective characters to share their imagined takes on how they met and what that meant to them. “To me, it was always really important to think of who Albus was before he met Geller, Law said. “I always imagined that being Dumbledore was actually quite a lonely place being that he was brilliant and outstanding at a very young age, to the point where he probably felt slightly isolated, or someone who was maybe diminishing his own sense of power and self and scope and ambition. And then suddenly, he meets someone who is as brilliant and matches him and inspires him and, and that kind of connection is very, very, very powerful. More so when you’re at a very familiar, you know, a young age.”
Law sees playing Dumbledore at his age as fortuitous because, like the character, he can reflect and look back at the sort of thing that shaped him to be the person he is now. “I think it’s important then to also remember what their time together would have been, like incredibly dynamic, incredibly cherished and special,” he said. “And then this awful kind of moment where you realize you’re on a different path, you’re actually moving away from each other, but that doesn’t necessarily take away from the explosive kernel, the firework that went off in Initially, in fact, it makes it harder.”
7 – Fantastic Beasts
Of course, we couldn’t end this without talking about the “Fantastic Beasts.” During the period of the two films, both Pickett and Nifler have served as a comedic device for our characters as they often find themselves getting into all sorts of trouble because of their kleptomania or mischievousness. However, their roles are a bit different in “The Secrets of Dumbledore,” which could be for the better. “I also adore Pickett, but I love that in this movie, Pickett and the sweet and incredibly complicated niffler Teddy,” Redmayne said. “They joined forces. And he realized that they’re kind of like the siblings that have had a consistent rivalry either in my coat pocket or down in the case, and here they cut back. They’re forced to step up.”
“The way in which those characters have evolved is kind of nothing short of fascinating really because even in the script, they’re detailed descriptions, but they’re completely imagined characters,” Law said. “And like Eddie said in this film, suddenly they’re kind of saving the day, and they’re doing stuff.”
“Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” opens in theaters on April 15, 2022.
