Want to see those deleted scenes before the DVD extras are released? They’re on YouTube now: Mildred’s dropping Jacob, the full Jacob and the Demiguise chase scene (but not the Newt and Tina shared future glimpse), GrindelGraves comforting Tina and grooming Credence, the Runespoor Jacob didn’t quite see eye-to-eye, Shaw, Sr., in grief at the newspaper office, why Queenie took Jacob from the hotel rooftop to the battle scene, and what happened to the escaped Billywig Newt forgot.
We’re missing the Credence at lunch with Graves, Newt’s shirtless moment, and the GrindelGraves extended scene in the subway professing love for an Obscurus, not to mention Graves having his vision in his MACUSA office, but there’s an awful lot here to unpack.
There’s an extended version of the subway scene with Credence visible in the Obscurial online now, as well.
Here’s the weird thing. Though all these extended play and deleted scenes are already online, two ‘Exclusive Deleted Scenes’ from ‘Fantastic Beasts’ — both of which are on the other, longer reel above, Jacob and the Demiguise without the Queenie-Jacob moment, i.e., significantly shorter — have just been officially released in the run-up to the launch of the film’s DVD/Blu-Ray packaging.
Anybody have an idea as to what is going on? First thoughts about the deleted scenes? Let us know below!
Thoughts as follows:
The scene between Grindelwald and Graves has a creepy air in retrospect, however it’s notable to me for another reason.
Before I saw the film, I perused through the official making-of, behind-the-scenes book. At one point in there, Carmen Ejogo, who plays Seraphina gives an interview where she says that both she and Waterston about the professional relationship between Tina and the president.
According to Ejogo, Tina and Seraphina were much closer at some point before the beginning of the story proper, possibly second only to Graves. So Ejogo knew she had to play that scene with this broken friendship in mind. I think that relationship is hinted at when Grindelwald speaks to Tina about the president being “under a lot of pressure”.
It’s nice to find an Ilvermorny mention at last, and to hear the school song (though I’ll admit in my head I heard Tom Waits singing “Hope I don’t fall in Love”).
All the Jacob scenes appear to belong in the film without being excised.
That gets at the crux of the problem. Even with some of these scene finally revealed, I get the idea that it’s still incomplete, maybe even in script form. For instance I’m still left wondering if there isn’t an earlier draft where the orphanage took more center stage.
All I know is I’d like it if she released an earlier draft versions of the script, just to compare and see. That would be a big help in all this.
Correction:
I meant to write “The scene between Grindelwald and “Tina”. My fingers leap before my mind can look (slaps self in the head).
I don’t understand why the scenes you mentioned not being included were excluded. They seem to have more to do with the overall story and missing bits than some of these others. I agree with Chris C that it would be wonderful to get the original script. Some of JKR’s marvelous details and intricate storytelling have been left out by excluding the extra Graves scenes. They have had some trouble with his storyline – polyjuice vs other means of transforming; when Grindelwald began the infiltration; his true relationship with Credence and when it began. Maybe they’re just trying to avoid these complications that remain unanswered.
Here’s an interesting element that I’ve wondered about for some time. In her final Pottermore promotional piece before FB’s theatrical release, J.K. Rowling inserts a mention of Harry Potter into her version of Wizarding America.
She does this in the form of a distant, 17th century relative named Abraham Potter, one of the first Aurors for MACUSA.
The relevant text for this character goes as follows:
“Of these twelve, only two survived into old age: Charity Wilkinson, who would become MACUSA’s third President, and Theodard Fontaine, whose direct descendant Agilbert is the present day Headmaster of Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Also of note are Gondulphus Graves, whose family remains influential in American wizarding politics, and Abraham Potter, whose distant relationship to the famous Harry Potter would be uncovered by eager genealogists centuries later.”
The link for this text can be found at Pottermore here:
https://www.pottermore.com/writing-by-jk-rowling/macusa
Unless I am very much mistaken, Harry Potter’s ancestor is represented visually in the following trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pj4TltFJJKk
This raises just one simple question: what is a reference to Harry Potter doing there in the first place? Is it just a bit of fan-service, or is it Rowling’s way of signaling something important, like a clue of some sort?
Further, was it always meant as a piece of side promotion, or is it another excised part of the story that would have found a mention at some point during an earlier draft.
These are some of the conundrums that I’m afraid the fans are going to have to wonder about until and unless more clarifying info comes to light.
We are also missing the scene where Credence boards a boat at the end. Do you think any of the deleted scenes that seem to have been missed from the DVD will appear on the internet one day? It seems very odd to put some of them on the DVD but not the others. I feel that the scenes that don’t seem like they will be on the DVD would have added something to the film and it will be disappointing if we never get to see them.
The Amazon streaming version of the film was released yesterday. Were the ‘extras’ included in that package?
To your question and hope, SophieS, I can only say “I don’t know if we will see them” and “it won’t serve the cause of those who cut them to include or reveal them except in a distant future.”
ChrisC,
Tangentially, here, but tying in to variously to other recent posts: Two of the twelve in that passage have clearly German names – Wilhelm Fischer and Helmut Weiss (with none of the various famous people in the German Wikipedia of those names being from the 17th-century, much less having an American connection, then). Wikipedia “German Americans” tells us “In the 1670s the first significant groups of German immigrants arrived in the British colonies”, making it historically plausible to have them among the Ur-Aurors. But, while there are various St. Theodards, Theodard Fontaine’s name reminded me of the famous German novelist and poet, Theodor Fontane – a coincidence, or some arcane (Nabokovian?) wordplay and allusion?
D.L. Dodds,
Good catch with a possible Nabokov connection. That’s more than I ever understood. I’ll admit this is the first time I’ve had to gain an interest in Nabokov as a writer, so in terms of either him, or the meaning of the names on the Auror list, I’m still having to play catch-up, I’m afraid.
Hope you’re right, though.
ChrisC,
I found the enjoyment of Lolita and Pale Fire (in many ways, considerable) a very complicated sort of enjoyment (so to put it), with Pale Fire variously much easier than Lolita, and have somehow never gone on reading Nabokov, however interesting one or another work sounds or warmly recommended it is.
I’ve yet to try Theodor Fontane, as well-spoken of (and handily available in English translation) as I’ve found him to be… He was certainly prolific (his English Wikipedia article lists 13 “Poems” as distinct from 25 “Works” – and mentions lots more in the body of the article, besides!). His Dutch Wikipedia article says he was a fan of Thackeray, and made his acquaintance while in England as a foreign correspondent.