Early critics' reactions for Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore are largely praising the film for pulling the franchise back from the brink of destruction. The franchise, which is a prequel series set in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, follows textbook author Newt Scamander and his adventures with various magical creatures. The first film, 2016's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, was viewed skeptically by Harry Potter fans, though it was ultimately reasonably well-received, earning 74% on Rotten Tomatoes and quadrupling its budget worldwide. This was largely on the back of interesting new characters, including Eddie Redmayne's Scamander, Katherine Waterston's Tina, Alison Sudol's Queenie, and especially Dan Fogler's Kowalski.
However, the 2018 sequel Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, despite tripling its budget at the box office, soured audiences on the entire experience. The film, which presents a convoluted story involving the ancestry of several characters who steal a lot of screen time from the main crew and starred Johnny Depp in the middle of his domestic violence controversy, was deemed Rotten by both critics (36%) and audiences (54%). When The Secrets of Dumbledore, which comes to U.S. theaters on April 15, 2022, was announced, interest had waned considerably since the franchise's initial release. This was compounded by Harry Potter author and Fantastic Beasts screenwriter J.K. Rowling's hateful Twitter comments toward trans people, which caused many fans to reevaluate their relationship with any new projects she would be involved in.
Yesterday, various critics were given the opportunity to share their spoiler-free reactions to an early screening of Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore. The consensus seems to be that it is an improvement on The Crimes of Grindelwald, though the margin by which they think it is certainly varies. They also point out that the film brings in a lot more Harry Potter mythology, sometimes to the point that it seems less like a Fantastic Beasts movie and more like a Harry Potter film. Check out selected early reactions below:
Interestingly, the standout characters that these critics have pointed out largely avoid praising the main cast. This either implies that their arcs haven't quite saved them from the precarious positions that Grindelwald left them in, or that this screenplay focuses even less on them. The only returning characters that are mentioned are the adorable creature known as a Niffler, the continual fan-favorite Kowalski, Jude Law's Albus Dumbledore, Grindelwald (who is now played by Mikkelsen), and Jessica Williams as Lally Hicks, who is a professor at the American answer to Hogwarts, called Ilvermorny.
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore is a project that comes with a lot of baggage, both from the controversies swirling around it and from the content of the previous film. It will be interesting to see if it continues the downward trend of the franchise, which would take it to about $400 million worldwide, only double the presumptive budget. There were initially plans to make many more films in this franchise, but unless this film is a massive success, it seems less and less likely that it will happen.
Source: Various (see embedded tweets above)
