Filming is underway on Fantastic Beasts 2, and Warner Bros. has announced some new additions to the cast. Previously, we knew that a large portion of the original cast would be returning including Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander, Katherine Waterston as Tina Goldstein, Alison Sudol as Queenie Goldstein, Dan Fogler as Jacob Kowalski, and Ezra Miller as Credence. Pottemore reveals that Carmen Ejogo is also set to return as MACUSA President Seraphina Picquery, so hopefully they’ll actually give her something to do in this movie. Additionally, Jude Law is on board to play young Dumbledore and (sigh), Johnny Depp will return to play Grindelwald.
Among the new cast announcements is that Brontis Jodorowsky (El Topo) is set to play Nicolas Flamel, who you may recall as the eponymous Sorcerer of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone who discovered the stone that could produce the elixir of life. Whether or not he’ll have that stone in his possession when we meet him in Fantastic Beasts 2 remains to be seen. Other new additions include Zoë Kravitz as Leta Lestrange (glimpsed in a photo in the first movie); Callum Turner as Theseus Scamander; Claudia Kim as a woman in a wizarding circus; William Nadylam as Yusuf Kama; Ingvar Sigurdsson as Grimmson; Ólafur Darri Ólafsson as Skender; Kevin Guthrie as Abernathy; Wolf Roth as Spielman; Victoria Yeates as Bunty; Derek Riddell as Torquil Travers; Poppy Corby-Tuech as Rosier; and Cornell S. John as Arnold Guzman. Harry Potter devotees will recognize the names “Travers” and “Rosier” as belonging to Death Eaters.
Additionally, Fiona Glascott (Brooklyn) and Jessica Williams (The Daily Show) have joined the cast in undisclosed roles. Williams is a Harry Potter fan and earlier this summer, she told Stephen Colbert how she met author and screenwriter J.K. Rowling:
And here was her reaction today at the news of being cast:
Fantastic Beasts 2 opens November 16, 2018. Here’s the official synopsis:
J.K. Rowling wrote the screenplay for the film, which opens in 1927, a few months after Newt helped to unveil and capture the infamous Dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald. However, as he promised he would, Grindelwald has made a dramatic escape and has been gathering more followers to his cause—elevating wizards above all non-magical beings. The only one who might be able to stop him is the wizard he once called his dearest friend, Albus Dumbledore. But Dumbledore will need help from the wizard who had thwarted Grindelwald once before, his former student Newt Scamander. The adventure reunites Newt with Tina, Queenie and Jacob, but his mission will also test their loyalties as they face new perils in an increasingly dangerous and divided wizarding world.
