Because franchise death is slow and grinding, we still have to get through Fantastic Beasts 3, officially titled Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore. The first trailer dropped yesterday—one day after JK Rowling wrote some new transphobic sh-t in The Times that I won’t link to because it’s asinine but here is a link to donate to Trans Lifeline, a support network run by and for the trans community—and I am frustrated by how much potential Fantastic Beasts has squandered, and sad that Rowling makes it so difficult to enjoy the Wizarding World anymore.
Everyone’s line for separating the art from the artist is different, but she’s standing right on mine. I watch this trailer and heave a series of sighs for different reasons, one of which is the sadness I feel that a story that brought so many kids around the world into a community of fellow fans comes from a woman who is so determined to create exclusionary spaces no one f-cking asked for. Anyway, you can donate to Mermaids, a UK charity that supports gender non-conforming youth and their families here.
The trailer doesn’t even look particularly good. Jude Law as young Dumbledore remains spectacular casting, Mads Mikkelsen replacing Johnny Depp as Grindelwald is still an upgrade, and Dan Fogler is the actual star of these movies and they have finally figured that out, but goofy New Scamander and his magical menagerie DO NOT belong in the same movies as Dumbledore fighting Grindelwald and the fashy wizards. These are two separate stories, they have NEVER sat comfortably together, and this trailer only reminds me that Fantastic Beasts should be sweet movies about zany animal antics aimed at young children, and the Dumbledore stuff should be a separate series with an older YA target audience. Cramming it all together is just messy, it always has been, it always will be. Just look at the moment Newt and his snooty brother crab-walk amidst all the stuff about fighting the fashy wizards. It’s tonally jarring and never makes any sense. These movies work SO HARD to justify Newt being the protagonist because these stories really have nothing to do with him. This trailer is just two minutes and twenty seconds of staggeringly wasted potential.
You can support the Transgender Law Center here.
