JK Rowling once told Harry Potter fans that “Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home” — and the new trailer for Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is ready to take you back there. The new teaser goes right back to the school of witchcraft and wizardry that started it all as the Potter prequel saga continues.
After 2016’s New York-set adventure, Newt Scamander’s latest outing packs in visits to London and Paris, as well as a certain magical castle up in Scotland. If Hogwarts itself feels exactly as you remember, the headmaster is a little different — in the trailer we get to hear Jude Law’s young Dumbledore speak for the first time in a voice that appropriately sounds like a younger Michael Gambon.
Elsewhere there’s some new (pretty fantastic-looking) beasts including an owl-like bird and a deer-like creature with jagged antlers, Dan Fogler’s muggle baker Jacob Kowalski is reacquainted with the magical world after having had his memory erased, Ezra Miller’s Credence Barebone looks like he can now control his Obscurial abilities (possibly thanks to his new haircut), Zoë Kravitz makes an appearance as Newt's old flame Leta Lestrange, and Johnny Depp’s big bad Grindelwald has had a much-needed menacing makeover.
As for locations, one action sequence looks to be set in the Hogwarts lake, there’s a grand French circus set, and Newt looks to be heading into action in an intense magic duel.
It’s an enticing mix of old and new, with JK Rowling once again on original scripting duties and David Yates returning behind the camera. We muggles will get to return to Hogwarts when Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald arrives in UK cinemas on 16 November.