Film

JK Rowling Confirmed That ‘Fantastic Beasts’ Will Be A WWII Epic; Tweeted Other Stuff Too

She loves it.

by Sinead Stubbins  22 November 2016

Want more Junkee in your life? Sign up to our newsletter, and follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook so you always know where to find us.

Spoilers for Fantastic Beasts. 

–

J.K. Rowling loves Twitter and she especially likes using it to further the Harry Potter universe and drop little details that make fans say, “wait, what?”. Presumably she assumes that most fans have seen Fantastic Beasts now, so she decided to drop some truths on social media last night.

Does ‘Fantastic Beasts’ Hold Up Under The Pressure Of ‘Harry Potter’?

Since it was announced that Fantastic Beasts was going to be five movies long, star a young Dumbledore and was to include Johnny Depp as Dumbledore’s childhood pal (and maybe first love) Grindelwald, people have been trying to figure out what the hell these films are going to be about. Can you make five films about chasing after magical creatures?

On Twitter last night, J.K. Rowling said that the films would take place from 1926 to 1945, seemingly confirming an old throwaway statement she made about Dumbledore’s eventual defeat of dark wizard Grindelwald being somehow related to World War II.  Given the gang is travelling to Paris in the next film, it seems like it will inevitably become a wizard/human war epic (also explaining the multiple World War I references in Fantastic Beasts, and insistence that wizards and muggles fought side by side).

Also yes: these films should be considered as canon.

So what does this all mean? Well, Fantastic Beasts will have to take a pretty dark turn if it has to contend with human Nazis and powerful wizard bigots and a way for Dumbledore to end World War II, seemingly intercut with scenes of Eddie Redmayne being whimsical with magical creatures. Let’s just hope they don’t mine the Holocaust analogies too hard.