Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, so read ahead only if you've seen it.
The shocking ending of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald has left us with a lot of unanswered questions to impatiently wait to be dealt with in Fantastic Beasts 3. Aside from that huge Dumbledore reveal, the most perplexing development was the sweet and likable Queenie Goldstein's decision to join Grindelwald's dreadful cause. From what we've seen so far from the character, turning away from her friends and family after just a short encounter with the franchise's villain just doesn't add up.
Alison Sudol recently admitted to Entertainment Weekly that when she first found out about the fate of her character at the end of Crimes of Grindelwald, she was just as shocked as we were. It took Sudol some time to process the plot point and understand the decision from Queenie's perspective. While it's quite the puzzling reveal, she still has hope for the goodness of her character, saying this:
I still believe in her heart of hearts she's going over to fight what she believes in. Grindelwald is saying, 'we're creating a different world' and the world that she is in is broken. I don't believe she's turning evil. It's more like she's trying to find somebody who is giving her an option. He's manipulating her but he's manipulating everybody. He even did that with Dumbledore.
In Crimes of Grindelwald, Queenie struggled with an unfair American wizarding law banning her from marrying her muggle love, Jacob Kowolski. Amidst a fight between the love birds, Queenie journeyed to Paris to find her sister, Tina, who is hot on the trail looking for Credence. While the rest of the gang (Newt, Jacob and Tina) find one another in the city, Queenie finds herself lost in Paris and then in the same room as Grindelwald himself. She decides to hear him out at his gathering at the end of the film, and much to everyone's surprise, she joins him.
While it looks like Queenie has gone off the deep end with her allegiance with Grindelwald, there are a couple things to keep in mind. First off, it was strongly established in the sequel that he has quite the knack for persuasion, so she could just be a victim of circumstance. Second, Queenie also has the talent of legilimency, which is the ability to see in someone else's mind. This ability could have had an influence on her move to the dark side, whether she could see into Grindelwald's mind or if it was simply toying with her brain to an unmanageable point. Fans will remember that Severus Snape had the same ability, though he would use more discretion with it then we see her do in her first appearance in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
Queenie's questionable decision will certainly come into play in the next movie, with a broken-hearted Jacob Kowolski's mind likely on finding her and bringing her back. Fantastic Beasts 3 is in the works for a release on November 20, 2020.
