Fantastic Beasts 3’s Trailer And Poster Are Missing A Key Character, And Fans Are Concerned Online

The most recent trailer for the long in development third movie in the Fantastic Beasts franchise recently arrived, and along with it we’ve seen a flurry of character posters and other media to promote the film set to open next month. But while fans are certainly looking forward to the movie, they’re also becoming concerned because one key character seems to be missing, Katherine Waterston’s Tina Goldstein.

Waterston played the female lead in the first two Fantastic Beasts movies and she is officially on the cast list for Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, but you wouldn’t know it from watching trailers or looking at posters. Despite the fact that it appears every character with a line of dialogue in this film has their own poster, Katherine Waterston does not. Fans on Twitter want to know what’s up. 

The trailers show Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander as part of a small team that is working at the behest of Jude Law’s Dumbledore, to stop the wizard Grindelwald, now being played by Mads Mikkelsen. Some members of the team, like Dan Fogler’s Jacob, we’ve met before, others are new, but one would certainly expect that Katherine Waterston’s character would be part of this group, and yet, she is very clearly not there. 

We’ve certainly seen instances of scenes being changed in CGI to remove items or characters that might be spoilers, but the appearance of a character that has been in the last two movies would not normally be that sort of thing. It seems clear that Tina’s status as missing is intentional, probably part of the story that the movie is going to tell. There will be a reason that Tina is not here. At least that’s the hope. 

But even if there’s a good reason for Tina being missing, that doesn’t help the fans who love the character and want to see her. It’s gotten so bad that some have simply taken it upon themselves to create a Tina Goldstein poster since apparently nobody else is going to do it 

But even if the plot of Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore justified Tina Goldstein being missing, that's not good enough for everybody. There are some fans that wonder if the character being sidelined, in the promotional material if not in the movie itself, isn’t intentional. Katherine Waterston has been a vocal critic of Fantastic Beasts screenwriter J.K. Rowling as it regards her views on the trans community, and there’s a feeling this could be a form of retribution. 

Whatever the reason, it’s certainly true that something is up with Tina Goldstein in the new Fantastic Beasts movie. We’ll find out what that is when the film arrives in theatres next month.