The Harry Potter saga was full of incredibly strong characters, few better than the head of the world’s best school for witchcraft and wizardry, Albus Dumbledore. His presence was felt through all eight films, even after the fatal sacrifice he made to save Harry Potter and all that is good. The older, wiser man played by both Richard Harris and Michael Gambon is etched in our minds forever, but soon fans will get a chance to see a younger version of that character in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, played by the downright handsome Jude Law. 

We got our first real look at Law in the role of the famous wizard thanks to a cast image released a few months back when the official title and synopsis were released. Law, who is known for enhancing films (good and bad) with his performances, is one of the better castings the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts have made. But while fans rejoiced when he was announced as the future head of Hogwarts, fans also grabbed their pitch-forks and torches as Johnny Depp joins the sequel (non-cameo) as Dumbledore’s famous rival, Gellert Grindelwald.

I’m not too familiar with the mythology of Grindelwald and the world of Fantastic Beasts itself, but even I began to shake my head a bit when Depp was announced to play the big bad for this set of movies. Don’t get me wrong, I very much enjoy Depp as an actor, but only when the role calls for it. He’s known for his quirky and “out of left field” approach to characters. He’s an Oscar nominated actor, and we’ve seen what he can do with characters, but it feels like that’s in the past, which leaves us questioning the decision to make him the villainous character moving forward. Hopefully I and everyone are wrong and he solidifies himself as a serious bad for The Crimes of Grindelwald and the inevitable sequels that will follow.

I’m looking forward to this sequel. I surprisingly enjoyed Fantastic Beasts a little bit more than I was expecting, which was mainly due to how it differentiated itself from the famous Harry Potter movies. While I’m still hesitant as to how they’ll handle the Newt Scamander character moving forward (I want to follow him, not a Dumbledore prequel), I’m glad he and the original crew from the first movie seem to be front-and-center just as much as the others, maybe even more in the future. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald