As y’all know, I hope, I have not invested myself in speculation about the next Fantastic Beasts film, Crimes of Grindelwald (not much, at least, since I wrote this a year ago). I don’t follow the trailers, MinaLima art, and still photography releases because we have only scratched the surface in unpacking Lethal White, the fourth Cormoran Strike novel, and the film speculation turns on information released in exotic places, seemingly at random, and semi-continuously. I’m busy, in other words, on reading a long work that is a Rowling solo effort — and I like my speculation to be based on the clues and mysteries in fixed texts we have in hand. Full stop.
Having said that, I would be neglecting my ‘Dean of Harry Potter Scholars’ responsibilities if I didn’t acknowledge the remarkable work being done at TheRowlingLibrary (Go, Patricio!), Univers Harry Potter, and by S. P. Sipal to monitor the global release of clues, to assemble them in tweets, posts, and videos, and to offer fascinating theories about what is coming in the next movie. This is some studiously serious Wizard sleuthing.
I love, for example, Sipal’s explanation of what DDore’s wrist manacles mean in the video above, the guess work connecting the necklace on the screenplay cover and the phoenix tears mentioned in the first film’s bar ballad, and the ideas about Grindelwald’s work with the skull, his transformation into a blue dragon, and the ingredients he needs for this alchemical magic. If half of what Sipal and company have doped out comes true, actually seeing the film will be anti-climactic! Did I mention an Unbreakable Vow?
Take that as a spoiler warning before you watch the video — and please let me know if you are as startled and impressed as I am about the worldwide search for Crimes of Grindelwald clues and the teams of researchers dedicated to finding and turning them into fun theories. I’m back to a re-reading of Lethal White…
I am one of these people who was on social
media nonstop for a couple of days surrounding the release of the final trailer. I chastise myself and say there will be nothing left to reveal in the actual theater and I should stop so there will be SOME surprises! Yet, I can’t stop myself. I even created a couple of new accounts to be able to interact with those I know are very good at practically predicting plot based on those clues and not just talking about “shipping” characters. I “met” some people across the world who like me want to see the movie alone at first so I won’t be interrupted by silly questions causing me to miss some nuance.
Many people may be dissatisfied because Dan Fogler equated this film to The Empire Strikes Back in the Star Wars universe. That movie ended with Han Solo stuck in a hunk of metal. Will we have a cliffhanger ending? Some – as Sipal does in the comments above – think so.
After having read the script five times and having seen the movie three times, I think we can predict the following: Kama is not a ‘throw away character, just there to bring out Credence’s story’ as I read in one of the early reviews on the internet, but we will see him back in at least one of the next installments.
There are two major reasons for expecting this:
1. He has – be it unknowingly – become the next master of the elderwand, and somehow Dumbledore has to become it’s master.
2. Now that both Irma and Leta are dead, there is only one way left for our heroes to discover who Credence really is: in the shipping company’s archive. Kama is the only one who knows which ship it was that Leta and Credence were on.