For those who think the series has become increasingly ridiculous with each entry, the trailer for Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore seems to agree. After Warner Bros exhausted all seven primary Harry Potter novels, the studio was loathe to let such a lucrative property languish. Warner turned to 120-page charity spin-off book Fantastic Beasts & Where To Find Them, written as an in-universe textbook that a Hogwarts student might purchase in Diagon Alley, as its next Potter project. The 2016 movie adaptation starred Eddie Reymayne as the textbook's author, Newt Scamander, and while perhaps not living up to Harry, Ron and Hermione's adventures, was praised for expanding the Harry Potter mythos into fresh territory.

If turning Fantastic Beasts into a feature-length movie was a trick Albus Dumbledore himself would be proud of, the announcement of sequel, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, hit like a Confundus charm. The sequel morphed Fantastic Beasts' original concept from a relatively self-contained adventure full of - you guessed it - fantastical beasts, into a de facto Harry Potter prequel drawing from Dumbledore's backstory and the minor character of Gellert Grindelwald, as detailed in The Deathly Hallows. That emphasis will continue in forthcoming third entry, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, and the film's first trailer appears to acknowledge how ridiculous the franchise's direction has become.

Related: Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore Is A Cheap WB Trick

The trailer introduces Fantastic Beasts 3's core team, mockingly asking, "This is the team that's going to take down the most dangerous wizard in over a century... a magizoologist, his indispensable assistant, a wizard descended from a very old family, a school teacher, and... a muggle?" The line is Newt's brother, Theseus, pointing out how Dumbledore's assembled motley crew are distinct underdogs head-to-head against a dark wizard of Grindelwald's caliber. Deliberately or otherwise, however, the quote also points out how far Fantastic Beasts has strayed from its initial intentions - and how it makes no sense for Newt Scamander to be leading this squad of wand-waving assassins into battle.

Jude Law in Fantastic Beasts 3

The Fantastic Beasts movies comprise two very distinct strands of the Harry Potter mythos. There's Newt Scamander's animal antics, which dominated the original 2016 movie, and there's the feud between Dumbledore and Grindelwald that digs deeper into Harry Potter's extensive lore and bears a greater impact on the main timeline. Those two strands together are not a natural fit. The Crimes of Grindelwald and The Secrets of Dumbledore have each engineered a way for Eddie Redmayne's Newt Scamander to be involved in the Potter-prequel material, but it's a clumsy marriage - to the point where the "Fantastic Beasts" title feels woefully redundant. So, when Theseus asks what a magizoologist and his friends are doing hunting down one of the world's deadliest wizards, Harry Potter fans might be wondering exactly the same... albeit for different reasons.

Maybe the line is a tacit acknowledgement of how Fantastic Beasts' fantastic beasts are fading further into the background, or perhaps it's simply coincidence that Theseus' words apply from a real life muggle perspective as much as they do in-universe. Either way, Warner Bros. won't be deterred from its intended direction for the Harry Potter "Wizarding World." Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald created numerous gaping plot holes with its prequel narrative, signalling a willingness to rewrite Potter lore if it means spicing up the past and drawing Harry's loyal army back into theaters. Between the retcons and rewrites, it's perhaps unsurprising that Newt Scamander's story and Dumbledore's past are still being awkwardly mashed together in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore. Expect the inevitable movie adaptation of Quidditch Through The Ages to land as a Joker-esque exploration of Voldemort's grisliest murders.

More: Fantastic Beasts 3 Needs To Explain A Major Newt Plot Hole

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