Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald - Trailer Review

It's been a long time since I've reviewed a trailer, mostly because it's been a long time since I've seen a trailer that gave me a longer thought than "That looks good" or "That looks shit". However, a trailer for a new film in the Harry Potter Franchise is never going to be "just a trailer", seeing as my love for Harry Potter is practically unrivalled, that being said, this trailer gives me some pause. Fantastic Beats & Where To Find Them was a film I very much enjoyed, there were even parts of it that I loved, and those parts were whenever the film was doing something new. The location, the creatures, Jacob Kowalski, Queenie Goldstein, all things that we had never seen before in Harry Potter, and thus were the most enjoyable parts for me because they expanded on the world and differentiated themselves from the other films. My least favourite parts of the film is whenever it felt the need to reference or repeat elements from the Harry Potter films, those were the moments where the film felt rather doubtful of itself and needed to fall back on already established elements as a safety net. This trailer suggests that this film is going even further back, returning to Hogwarts, making Dumbledore a main character, and telling a story that was already told in Deathly Hallows. Not told in great detail mind you, but it wasn't really a tale that needed detail, it was fine as it is.

I realised after watching it that every bit of news to come out about this film has been slightly disheartening for me, Dumbeldore's sexuality not going to be addressed, the casting of Johnny Depp, David Yates remaining on as a director, none of it being things to raise my confidence in the film. That being said, I am still very much looking forward to this film, and while I may complain about now, I know that as soon as I see Hogwarts back on the big screen, I'm going to turn into a pile of mush, because it's like Rowling said: “Whether you come back by page or by the big screen, Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home.”.

Also, here are some smaller observations I noticed about the trailer:

-I really don't like how they're downplaying the costumes and general aesthetics of the wizarding world, Dumbledore is for some reason wearing suits instead of robes.

-Rebranding it under the 'Wizarding World' Franchise is probably a good move, calling it the Harry Potter franchise is a bit odd when he hasn't been in one of these films for 7 years.

-That one shot of Newt and Dumbledore throwing their wands to the ground looked really cool.

-The music at the title screen sounded like the theme to The Avengers.

-Danny