A trailer for the Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them movie adaptation hit the web this week. The movie will take place 70 years before the Harry Potter books and films begin.
The trailer starts with Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) whispering “lumos maxima,” a new-to-fans variation of the ‘lumos’ spell – which blossoms into the Warner Bros. logo. As it turns out, Scamander isn’t simply discovering new beasts in America – somebody (likely Scamander himself) brought over a case full of magical creatures, and they escaped.
The trailer showcases the same incredible special effects as the original Harry Potter films, and given the film’s focus on magical creatures, it’s likely we’ll be supplied with some incredible original monsters. It also showcases one of the original series’ biggest flaws: the lack of people of color.
Only two people of color have been cast – Gemma Chan and Carmen Ejogo, both in roles that have yet to be named and who don’t appear in the trailer – and this despite Newt Scamander’s initial description from Rowling as “swarthy.”
As far as we know, no further people of color will be added to the cast; producer David Heyman told Entertainment Weekly that “people of color [would be filling]this world in a very organic way” – though “organic” for Heyman seems to mean ‘nameless background characters.’
Blogger Angel : “I’m pretty done with fantasy stories and films that can have all the imaginary creatures one can conjure, but little to no [people-of-color] characters.”
The Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them movie adaptation is scheduled to release in theaters on November 18 of next year. This will be the first in “at least” a trilogy of films, all penned by J.K. Rowling herself. They will be directed by David Yates.
What do you think of the Fantastic Beasts trailer? Sound off in the comments below!
