Warner Bros. has announced that filming has now commenced on the as-yet-untitled sequel to Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the latest instalment in J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World.
Eddie Redmayne stars once more as wizarding world magizoologist Newt Scamander, alongside Katherine Waterston as Auror Tina Goldstein, Alison Sudol as her sister Queenie Goldstein, and Dan Fogler as Jacob Kowalski. Johnny Depp stars as the powerful Dark Wizard Gellert Grindelwald, with Jude Law as Albus Dumbledore, Ezra Miller as Credence Barebone, Zoe Kravitz as Leta Lestrange, Callum Turner as Theseus Scamander, Claudia Kim as a young woman we first meet as a featured attraction at a wizarding circus, William Nadylam as a wizard named Yusuf Kama; Ingvar Sigurdsson as a bounty hunter named Grimmson; Ólafur Darri Ólafsson as Skender, who runs the wizarding circus; and Kevin Guthrie as Abernathy, whom we met as Tina and Queenie’s boss at MACUSA (Magical Congress of the USA).
J.K. Rowling wrote the screenplay for the film, which opens in 1927, a few months after Newt helped to unveil and capture the infamous Dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald. However, as he promised he would, Grindelwald has made a dramatic escape and has been gathering more followers to his cause—elevating wizards above all non-magical beings. The only one who might be able to stop him is the wizard he once called his dearest friend, Albus Dumbledore. But Dumbledore will need help from the wizard who had thwarted Grindelwald once before, his former student Newt Scamander. The adventure reunites Newt with Tina, Queenie and Jacob, but his mission will also test their loyalties as they face new perils in an increasingly dangerous and divided wizarding world. The film expands the wizarding world, moving from New York to London and on to Paris.
Fantastic Beasts 2 is once again directed by David Yates, from a screenplay by J.K. Rowling. It is set for release on November 18th 2018.