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Based on the early reactions, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore is shaping up to be a much-needed return to form for a flagging franchise that could really do with a hit after the volume of negativity to have swirled around the Wizarding World over the last couple of years.
Then again, the third installment in the prequel series is tracking for the lowest-grossing opening weekend of any title set in J.K. Rowling’s magical universe, so a return to form may not equate to massive box office success. One of the key driving forces will be the exploration of the dynamic between Jude Law’s titular wizard and his friend-turned-nemesis Grindelwald, with Mads Mikkelsen stepping in for the deposed Johnny Depp.
Speaking to Digital Spy, Law teased that he wanted the simmering tensions between the counterparts to feel equal parts special and real.
“I always imagined that being Dumbledore was actually [in] quite a lonely place being — that he was brilliant and outstanding at a very young age, to the point where he probably felt slightly isolated or someone who was maybe diminishing his own sense of power and self and scope and ambition.
Then suddenly, he meets someone who is as brilliant and matches him and inspires him and that kind of connection is very, very, very powerful. More so when you’re at a young age. And then, this awful moment where you realize you’re on a different path, you’re actually moving away from each other, but that doesn’t necessarily take away from the explosive kernel, the firework that went off initially. In fact, it makes it harder.”
Mikkelsen echoed those sentiments, revealing that he and Law spent a great deal of time figuring out the best way to bring it to the screen without getting too heavy-handed.
“We wanted this to be real. Magic we take for granted, it’s been with us since we were born, we can’t be wearing the fanboy hat and going, ‘Oh my God, this is magic’, right? So we wanted that relationship to be real, real people, real situation, real disappointment with each other. Nobody in history has actually started out saying, ‘I’m gonna be the bad guy’, right?
So we have to figure out what [Grindelwald’s] mission is, what’s his goal? Why is he trying to make the world a better place? I think that they started out having a common and a mutual goal as young adults, and then it got blurry. The ways of getting to that goal were different than they imagined.”
We’re only a couple of weeks away from Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore coming to theaters, and fans of the franchise will be hoping that it arrests the alarming slide that saw The Crimes of Grindelwald come under heavy fire.