The New ‘Fantastic Beasts’ Trailer Just Confirmed A Huge Harry Potter Fan Theory
Hiss hiss Harry Potter fans.
The final Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald trailer just dropped, and it has confirmed one of the oldest Harry Potter fan theories out there: that Voldemort’s horcrux pet snake Nagini has not always been a snake.
What we know now is that Nagini was once a human witch. And as J.K. Rowling confirmed on Twitter yesterday, she’s a Maledictus — which according to the Harry Potter Wiki is “a term used to denote a female individual whose blood had been cursed from birth, and would eventually lead her to turn into a beast.”
Rowling on Twitter said that Maledictus was a different condition to the curse that creates werewolves, because Maledictuses can be genetic and are always female.
They're different conditions. Maledictuses are always women, whereas werewolves can be either sex. The Maledictus carries a blood curse from birth, which is passed down from mother to daughter. https://t.co/wYfvPeQFRW
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) September 25, 2018
Nagini’s character will be played by Claudia Kim, who before now had been credited with a nameless character for the upcoming film.
“It will be so interesting to see another side of Nagini,” the actress told Entertainment Weekly, once her character had been revealed. “You’ve only seen her as a Horcrux. In this, she’s a wonderful and vulnerable woman who wants to live. She wants to stay a human being and I think that’s a wonderful contrast to the character.”
In the Harry Potter novels and films, Voldemort is almost always accompanied by the snake Nagini. Nagini almost kills Arthur Weasley, father of Ron, in the Order of the Phoenix, and does kill Severus Snape in one of the series’ final moments.
In the Fantastic Beasts trailer, Nagini is a travelling circus performer. In a shot about thirty seconds in, her identity is revealed: the name Nagini is said as she appears to turn into a snake, before the next shot reveals that she has completely transformed into the animal.
But even then, she doesn’t exactly appear threatening when compared to the real villain of the trailer: Grindelwald.
Check out the full trailer below:
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is in cinemas November 16.