Anybody got a spare Newt Scamander lying around?
If you’ve seen the first Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, you’ll know by now that it’s impossible not to fall in love with Newt Scamander. The tender-hearted animal wrangler will be back for another adventure this November in Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindelwald and this time, Newt will be teaming up Hogwarts’ future headmaster Albus Dumbledore to battle the villain Gellert Grindelwald. Eddie Redmayne opened up about why he thinks the unlikely pair work so well together and well, it’s got us a little emotional.
In an interview with We Got This Covered, the actor revealed that he thinks Dumbledore (played by Jude Law) came to him not just because he’s a magical animal whisperer. In fact, it turns out Dumbledore’s just like the rest of us out here looking for somebody on Tinder and wants him on his team because of his incredible emotional intelligence.
“I feel like Newt’s skillset is quite unique, and I don’t just mean with beasts,’ Eddie revealed. ‘I mean with empathy. His capacity to see broken people and to reach out to broken people is a skillset which is pretty unique.’
If you’re confused about how Dumbledore actually knows that though, it’s because the legendary wizard actually used to teach Newt. Before he became Harry Potter’s headmaster, he was first Newt Scamander’s transfiguration professor. We were actually treated to a little glimpse of one of their classes in the trailer, where Newt is confronted by a Boggart and makes quick work of his greatest fear: a boring office job, represented by a desk laden down with papers.
Eddie continued, ‘[His empathy] is one of the things that Dumbledore has always, since he was a kid, seen in Newt.’
Why does Dumbledore need that particular skillset in his fight against Grindelwald, you might ask? Well, it probably comes down to the fact that J.K. Rowling revealed that the villain was actually the greatest love and regret of the professor’s life. In fact, it was actually a bit of a controversial issue with this film as some fans were furious that it seemed like the series was erasing Dumbledore’s sexuality and scrapping all his scenes with Grindelwald. (That said, a devastating Dumbledore and Mirror of Erised scene in the trailer begs to differ.)
Grindelwald and Dumbledore were childhood friends that grew up next door to one another in Godric’s Hollow and as they grew up, Dumbledore's feelings for him grew. It seems like he was unable to get through to the love of his life as he strayed towards a darker path however, choosing instead to try to enslave Muggles to the magical world. If even Dumbledore wasn’t able to change Grindelwald’s mind, there might be a chance that cupcake of a human being Newt Scamander might.
‘If [the series] is building to a showdown between [Dumbeldore and Grindelwald] - [J.K. Rowling]’s created a scenario that’s not just as simple as the two can just face off,’ Eddie explained. ‘And actually, Dumbledore needs to recruit the skillset of Newt to help.’
All the emotional stuff aside, we bet having an army of magical beasts at your beck and call doesn’t hurt either. Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindelwald will be out later this year on November 16.
