The first trailer for Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore has been released, so Harry Potter fans finally have some footage to absorb from this latest entry in the Wizarding World. One thing that definitely didn’t go unnoticed is the franchise’s continued commitment to telling the story of Dumbledore and Grindelwald, as well as the continued unraveling of what exactly is happening with Credence Barebone. We even saw that Jacob, a mere Muggle, received a wand for protection!
One thing we didn’t see is a lot of details on what’s going on with Newt Scamander, and frankly, I think that’s the right call. Fantastic Beasts 3’s latest trailer seems to indicate that the movie is going to focus less on Newt Scamander and more on its other characters, which is absolutely the right call provided that’s what’s happening.
Newt Scamander Is The Least Interesting Character In Fantastic Beasts
Let me set the record straight in saying that, on paper, Newt Scamander is an interesting character. His vast knowledge of the mythical creatures of the Wizarding World would make him an invaluable ally in any situation, especially those where an incredibly dangerous monster is on the loose. The real problem is that the Fantastic Beasts franchise is barely about “fantastic beasts” or the locations in which they reside. Instead, Newt's been thrown into an adventure that’s far more interesting to fans and completely out of his area of expertise.
As fans, no one should feel bad they don’t care about Newt Scamander right now. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald relegated him to a side character in a franchise that was tailor-made for him. Now, in the few scenes we see of Newt in The Secrets of Dumbledore, he’s leading folks around small creatures and doing crab walks. The sequence feels like a scene shoe-horned in to justify his character’s existence in the movie, which is absolutely wild considering he’s the main character.
Fantastic Beasts Just Needs To Commit To Telling The Better Story
Dumbledore and his family drama hijacked Newt Scamander’s franchise from him, and truthfully, it is what it is. It’s not like Fantastic Beasts can just pull out of telling that story now, and the damage done to Newt Scamander has been carried out. Hopefully The Secrets of Dumbledore just acknowledges the true story in this installment and allows Newt to take a back seat alongside the rest of the cast for his segments while the greater story unfolds.
Is it unfortunate that the story of Dumbledore’s past vastly overshadows Newt Scamander’s story about taking days to figure out whether or not he’ll remain neutral in a literal war between good and evil? It is, but the longer Fantastic Beasts commits to keeping Newt the main character and telling the story through his eyes, the more the franchise suffers.
Newt Being A Hufflepuff Is Part Of The Problem
Imagine if Harry Potter was told from the perspective of Ron Weasley, or, Neville Longbottom. Neville, a Gryffindor but also someone that exhibits Hufflepuff energy, shows exactly why they don’t make for great main characters. Sure, loyalty, patience and niceness are great characteristics, but they often make for a boring lead. It took Neville three-fourths into the Harry Potter series to finally do something that was actually cool, and I have a feeling the same thing is going to happen to Newt in Fantastic Beasts.
Sure not all Hufflepuffs are boring, as there's Cedric Diggory. Cedric was a legitimately good character for one book, and how did that work out for him? He died, and to his credit, it’s one of the best deaths in the franchise. Cedric’s death helped propel Harry Potter into a more mature tone and helped the series progress as well.
Unfortunately, Fantastic Beasts can’t really give Newt Scamander a Cedric Diggory type of exit. He’s the face of the franchise and played by the very talented Eddie Redmayne as well. Killing off Newt would remove one of the biggest stars from the franchise and make the title “Fantastic Beasts” entirely irrelevant. If Newt Scamander dies in this saga, I can’t imagine it’s going to happen until the final act, thus culminating in the ultimate Hufflepuff combination of creating a cool moment in the 11th hour like Neville, but also dying for emotional impact like Cedric. Just like that, Newt Scamander would be the greatest Hufflepuff of all time.
Can Fantastic Beasts Shift Back To Newt While Still Telling Its Story?
Looking at where things are headed in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore, it feels as though the franchise is doing the best thing possible in shifting the story more towards Dumbledore and his drama with Grindelwald. Of course, we still haven’t seen the movie yet, and it’s possible the trailers just present it as such while Newt still gets a rather hefty amount of screen time and continues to look like a fish out of water.
If there is a way for Newt to be at the center of this very Dumbledore-centric story, there needs to be a meaningful way to tie him to all the drama that’s currently going on. The Obscurus started off as a great justification for Newt’s involvement, but most of that felt undone by the end of the movie when it became clear that Credence was the host of this magical parasite. Newt needs a legitimate reason to be included in Dumbledore’s story, and to be less of a guy trying to find his story in one that isn’t his. I’m not exactly sure how Fantastic Beasts goes about that, and perhaps we’ll be surprised by The Secrets Of Dumbledore. That seems doubtful considering the series once again went with a title that all but takes the focus entirely off Newt, but hey, maybe I'll be proven wrong.
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore will debut in theaters Friday, April 15th, 2022. Stick around for more updates on the franchise in the meantime, as well as more opinions on some of the various changes happening in this franchise.
