Fantastic Beasts’ third installment has Eddie Redmayne’s Newt once again trying to band together a team (of misfits?) to take down Grindelwald. What you don’t expect from a movie belonging to the Harry Potter franchise is the sharp political angle, as the villain tries to gain power by running for the office of Supreme Mugwump.
The film is yet another dive into Dumbledore and Grindelwald’s strained relationship gone horribly wrong, as the former tries in vain to stop the dishonorable schemes of the man he once loved and admired.
At the end of Fantastic Beasts 3, Dumbledore somehow successfully breaks his blood pact with Grindelwald, regaining the ability to attack him with a spell. When Grindelwald realizes this, he retreats from the fight. He has most likely gone into hiding at Nurmengard, his fortress in the Austrian Alps.
So, let’s back it up a little—as I said, Grindelwald is trying to use a little more tact when it comes to winning people over and making them comply with his pure-blood pedigree ideology.
(Given that this is set only a few years before WWII, it is really reflective of real-life historic events).
One sure way of doing this is by getting himself elected as Supreme Mugwump and legitimizing his doctrines as laws. Ironically, Grindelwald must not really believe himself to be pure of heart, since he tries to manipulate the one test that would guarantee him the position.
You see, the Supreme Mugwump is elected using an ancient tradition: The magical creature, Qilin, who has the power to see into one’s soul and future, will bow to you if you are pure of heart. If the Qilin bows to the candidate, they’re then elected as the Supreme Mugwump.
Grindelwald not only kills a baby Qilin but then also uses necromancy to animate its soul and manipulate it into bowing to him. Of course, it all goes sideways when Newt manages to thwart his plans and prove his deception. Here is where Dumbledore and Grindelwald begin to duel.
As you may remember, when the two were young they made a blood pact with each other that restricts them from casting a harmful spell over the other. But when Dumbledore throws himself in front of his nephew Credence to protect him from Grindelwald’s attack, it breaks the pact.
(This is similar to what happened to Harry when Lily blocked Voldemort’s curse).
Although the breaking of the pact leads to quite a big showdown between Grindelwald and Dumbledore, the former eventually retreats when he realizes there’s no winning this battle… yet.
This is, of course, not the last time the two will battle each other. As of the current timeline, it’s likely that Grindelwald is trying to secure himself at Nurmengard and come up with utterly chaotic plans that will result in their last and most well-known duel of 1945.
This epic chapter of their story still awaits us on the screen—that is if Warner Bros greenlights the last two movies in the Fantastic Beasts saga.
About Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore is an upcoming fantasy film directed by David Yates, with a screenplay by J. K. Rowling and Steve Kloves, from an original story by Rowling. It is the third installment in the Fantastic Beasts film series and the eleventh overall in the Wizarding World franchise.
The film stars an ensemble cast including Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Ezra Miller, Callum Turner, William Nadylam, Poppy Corby-Tuech, Jessica Williams, Jude Law, and Mads Mikkelsen.
Set several years after The Crimes of Grindelwald, it follows Albus Dumbledore tasking Newt Scamander and his allies with a mission that takes them into the heart of dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald’s army. Set in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and partly in Berlin, Germany, and leads up to the Wizarding World’s involvement in World War II.
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