New Fantastic Beasts 2 Poster Puts Grindelwald Front & Center

Screen Rant

By Ana Dumaraog

Published Oct 10, 2018

Warner Bros. releases the final poster for David Yates' Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald which puts the focus on Johnny Depp's villain.

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald gets a brand new poster featuring the movie's main villain front and center. After the successful launch of the Harry Potter spinoff series in 2016 with Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, Warner Bros. continues to build a brand new franchise off of the back of the popular lore based on J.K. Rowling's best-selling novels. Introducing a slew of new characters spearheaded Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) - a magizoologist and an employee at the Ministry of Magic, the offshoot is set decades before the main Potter series, reuniting fans with some familiar characters like Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) and Gellert Grindelwald (Johnny Depp).

The Crimes of Grindelwald, as the title suggests, will focus on the dark wizard continuing his evil ploy, which was cut short when he was captured by the end of the first Fantastic Beasts movie. With a little bit more than a month to go before the sequel hits theaters, marketing for the film is in full swing as another poster for the movie has been revealed.

The official Instagram account for the Fantastic Beasts films unveiled the final poster for The Crimes of Grindelwald featuring the main cast comprised of both old and new characters. At the one-sheet's front and center, however, is Depp's Grindelwald ready to face all his foes. Check it out below:

Despite Grindelwald being front and center, the poster doesn't feature Depp's face - a marketing decision many tout as a way to lessen the actor's presence in the promo materials for the film. Following Depp's disastrous surprise appearance at San Diego Comic-Con back in July dressed as his villainous character, it appears as if Warner Bros. has made the conscious decision to limit his participation in the marketing of the film. The recent special interview in light of the release of the latest trailer also didn't include him, although most of the movie's main players were there. Even the promos for the film rarely focus on him despite the fact that he's the headlining character of the project.

Sadly, at the end of the day, Depp will be one of the main players in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald and Warner Bros. can only do so much with regard to its marketing. It wouldn't make sense for the movie's narrative to not heavily focus on the villain considering that the title literally puts him on the spotlight. But while the studio can no longer do anything about Depp's involvement in the sequel, they still have some options down the road to prevent this kind of PR nightmare. Perhaps they can opt to recast the actor for the sequels. Given that they've already established the fact that Grindelwald can disguise himself quite effectively, maybe they can tap Colin Farrell back to play the role permanently or another actor with less controversial baggage than Depp.