The announcement of the title and synopsis for the upcoming Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore reveal the franchise is going to make the same mistakes with Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) that they made in the previous installment of the Harry Potter spin-off series. Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore will open in theaters on April 15, 2022, bringing fans back to the Wizarding World and the story of magizoologist Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) they were introduced to in 2016. The first film was a fun romp that welcomed new characters to the franchise such as American sister witches, Tina and Queenie Goldstein (Katherine Waterston and Alison Sudol, respectively), and a Muggle baker, Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler), who all befriend Newt.
It was only revealed at the end of the movie that Gellert Grindelwald (portrayed by Johnny Depp, with Mads Mikkelsen taking over in the third film, following the allegations against and legal battles of the former) would become a central figure of the new franchise. The sequel, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, expanded on characters and storylines with which hardcore Harry Potter fans are more familiar, namely Grindelwald's rise to power and fight to bring wizards to rule over Muggles which will eventually lead to a duel between him and Dumbledore (the history of this duel is detailed in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1). Dumbledore was shown to be working from the sidelines in the second film, calling on Newt and friends to try to stop Grindelwald from recruiting an army of wizards to his own cause.
The final scene in the second movie revealed Credence Barebone (Ezra Miller), a wizard whose magic powers were oppressed by his adoptive Muggle mother until he became a destructive and uncontrollable Obsucurus, to be the long-lost brother of Dumbledore. Many fans of the Harry Potter franchise were upset by the reveal, as it was an insertion of new and seemingly random information where there has been no previous indication of a third Dumbledore brother in the Harry Potter timeline. But with the announcement of the new title and the synopsis putting even more emphasis on Dumbledore's role, fans should be prepared for Fantastic Beasts 3 to make the same mistakes with the character that the second film made.
It seems Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore will attempt to expand on the connection between Grindelwald and Dumbledore that J.K. Rowling described in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Fans will know the two wizards were very close as teenagers, with Dumbledore even agreeing with Grindelwald's sentiments about Muggles for a short time. But after Albus' younger sister Ariana was accidentally killed in a duel between himself, Grindelwald, and brother Aberforth Dumbledore, the two parted ways for years before meeting in the battle where Dumbledore took him down for good.
The new movie will likely dive more deeply into these events, as The Crimes of Grindelwald also revealed Dumbledore and Grindelwald made a blood pact that keeps them from dueling one another. It would be unsurprising if Fantastic Beasts 3 were to reveal this pact was part of the cause of Ariana's death. Viewers can also expect the threequel to double down on the reveal of Credence's true identity as Aurelius Dumbledore, a story-point that makes no sense in light of the revelations made in Deathly Hallows that Ariana Dumbledore was a secret from most of the Wizarding World.
The films could be saved by putting the emphasis back on Newt Scamander and his friends, although the new title doesn't seem to point towards that. Perhaps fans will be pleasantly surprised by the new film, but it seems Fantastic Beasts 3 will continue to give heavy focus to Credence as the newest Dumbledore sibling, adding even more previously unknown and unnecessary lore to the Dumbledore canon. Dumbledore will be central to the story, and the storylines connecting him to Grindelwald will only become more tangled and convoluted as the franchise continues.
