The Fantastic Beasts series has always been missing—for lack of a better word—magic. This Harry Potter prequel series has always had a hard time trying to recapture what made the audience love this universe in the first place, crafting a world that wasn’t quite as compelling, a story that is often a slog, and focusing more on the fantastic beasts than the actual characters at the heart of this franchise. Fantastic Beasts was a difficult series even before the domestic abuse allegations against Johnny Depp, who played the film’s primary villain, Gellert Grindelwald, the recent legal troubles of Ezra Miller, and creator/screenwriter J.K. Rowling’s frequent transphobic comments. The road for these Fantastic Beasts has not been an easy one.
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, the third film in this planned five-film series, despite the seeming indifference towards this whole spinoff affair. While the Harry Potter films also had their share of growing pains, Fantastic Beasts has felt like this franchise slowly struggling to figure out how to expand the wizarding world in a way that would actually enthrall audiences in the way that The Boy Who Lived managed once did. While The Secrets of Dumbledore isn’t, well, fantastic, it’s certainly the closest Fantastic Beasts has come to bringing back the magic this universe once had.
The Secrets of Dumbledore begins with one of the series’ best scenes as Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) meets with Grindelwald (now played by Mads Mikkelsen). This pair talks about their youth, how they wanted to reshape the world, and with The Secrets of Dumbledore, it certainly seems like writers Rowling and Steve Kloves and director David Yates are trying to do just that. By focusing on and prioritizing the lore that was set up in the Harry Potter franchise, The Secrets of Dumbledore becomes far more engrossing than previous installments.
With Dumbledore unable to fight Grindelwald due to a blood pact made years earlier, Dumbledore unites a group to help take on Grindelwald’s plan for domination of the wizarding and non-wizarding worlds. This Dumbledore’s Army of sorts includes magizoologist Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), his brother and Auror, Theseus (Callum Turner), professor Eulalie Hicks (Jessica Williams, doing her best Katharine Hepburn impression), and muggle/baker, Jacob Kowalski (series MVP Dan Fogler). Together, they will try and stop Grindelwald and his army, which now includes Credence Barebone (Miller), who is growing more powerful and uncertain of his part in Grindelwald’s plans, and the telepathic Queenie (Alison Sudol), who previously hoped to marry Jacob before turning to Grindelwald’s side.
The Secrets of Dumbledore has a fine line to walk, attempting to both give audiences the world and characters that were introduced in Harry Potter, while also trying to tell its own story of Newt Scamander, his beasts, and their importance in this world. Because of this, Dumbledore and Hogwarts itself plays a much larger role than in previous installments, while Newt’s creatures are far more integral to the narrative of the film. For example, we are introduced to Newt as he helps a Qilin, a deer-like magical creature that can tell who is pure of heart and is able to see the future, give birth to twins. This new animal becomes integral to Grindelwald’s plans, as well as the Magical World’s attempts to elect a new leader.
But The Secrets of Dumbledore is also smart enough to focus on this strong cast and the dynamics that had been set up in the first two films. Both Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and The Crimes of Grindelwald felt like setup, while Secrets of Dumbledore finally gets to the heart of this story. Mikkelsen is an excellent choice for Grindelwald, where even despite his evil intentions and actions, there’s a warmth and likability to this performance underneath the sinister inclinations that makes it understandable why so many would want to follow him. Especially when Grindelwald and Dumbledore share the screen, this bond and their history is electric. The same is true in the film’s approach to the Dumbledore family, as we learn more about the past and present of the future headmaster of Hogwarts. Law continues to play Dumbledore as a character who has clearly made plenty of mistakes, but it just trying to fix the errors of his past. He’s a reluctant leader who wants to make the world a better place, and Law plays this role with just the right mixture of melancholy and hope.
This third installment also does its best to recalibrate the characters we already know in slight ways that make them more endearing. Redmayne’s Newt shows compassion, humor and confidence in ways that we haven’t seen before in this series, while characters like Newt’s assistant, Bunty (Victoria Yeates), and Yusuf Kama (William Nadylam) are given far more to do. Williams is especially fun as Professor Hicks, bringing an almost screwball comedy attitude to the film, while Fogler continues to be the massive heart this series needs. Jacob’s integration deeper into the Wizarding World provides some of the film’s funniest moments, and like the character of Harry Potter, becomes our way into this magical world with surprise and wonder.
But especially compared to the previous two installments. The Secrets of Dumbledore has a forward momentum that the other films lacked. The first two films were packed with exposition that stopped the story dead in its tracks, but with all that setup handled already, The Secrets of Dumbledore can explore this world, these characters, and these beasts with more freedom. While the bar has been low for this series so far, The Secrets of Dumbledore is easily the most exciting, touching, and funniest Fantastic Beasts film, and it’s not even close. Instead of having to explain this universe, The Secrets of Dumbledore can let us sit with these characters reckoning with the loves they’ve lost in quiet and gentle ways, create a captivating and often hilarious action sequence with a multitude of beasts, or explore the history of Dumbledore’s family with subtlety.
After two previous mediocre attempts, The Secrets of Dumbledore finally finds the Fantastic Beasts brand starting to find its footing. This series will likely never feel as extraordinary as Harry Potter did, as Yates, Rowling, and Kloves are telling a much darker and weighty story of what is essentially Wizarding Hitler, but Secrets of Dumbledore shows that there can be those glimmers of magic amongst this more dire tale. The Secrets of Dumbledore still isn’t as fantastic as the title implies, but it at least seems to be heading in the right direction.
Rating: B
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore comes to theaters on April 15.