We Visited the Set of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindewald

We can also tell you about the animals we’re going to see in the film, which include the Niffler we met before. We’ll see Unicorns and Hippogriffs and Phoenixes, as well as Mooncalves, Graphorns, Rappes, Screwts, Bollywigs and Nundus.

We got to speak to star Eddie Redmayne, who told us about what’s going on with Newt Scamander in the film. He said, “In the first film, you sort of saw reference or references made to a couple of characters, one of which was Dumbledore and Newt’s relationship with Dumbledore. And the other was Leta Lestrange and one of the things that most excited me about this script is seeing how those two characters, along with my brother, Theseus, played by Callum Turner, how they come into the world, and really this new world of Fantastic Beasts is aligned and kind of joined into the Potter lore that we all know about. It’s an odd thing when you get involved in a film and you read an original script, but you don’t know where your character’s going or what’s coming with it. And it was properly exhilarating to get to see the new script…I suppose almost from a fan’s point of view, you’ll see where Jo has taken us.”

He joked about the first time he saw Turner and how much alike they look. “I was sort of watching War and Peace. I don’t know if you guys saw that, which he was in. My wife and I were watching and he turned up on screen and literally, both Hannah and I, that’s like a taller, darker, better looking version of me.”

He continued, “When David was auditioning people for that part and then he’s, like, ‘I want you to test with this actor,’ and Callum walked in, I was, like, holy sh*t.”

Redmayne also spoke about where Newt and Tina are at the beginning of the film. He laughed when we asked him about it, saying, “It’s not so much a falling out as a misunderstanding. At the end of the last film, Newt was going home to write his book, but was desperate to come back. And when you meet him at the top of this film, he’s still desperate to come back. Through various miscommunications, there’s been a misunderstanding and one of the lovely things is the way in which these guys come back together is typical for Tina and Newt through a lot of inability to communicate what they really feel. But it’s been love- so wonderful playing with Katherine.”

He spoke about the buddy aspect of this film, when we mentioned how much we loved the dynamic between Newt and Jacob in the first film. “The action ends up in Paris, (which is where) the major part of the film takes place. And there is a point in the movie where Jacob and Newt meet up and it’s quite clear they have to go on an adventure to Paris. And so, there’s that element and Dan’s genius, which was one of the things I enjoyed most about the first film, how Jo had written Jacob, but then, Dan taking it to another level through improvising and playing. And there’s so much of that and I love it because it’s…he always described it as sort of this Laurel and Hardy style kind of relationship. But it was unlike anything I’d ever had to play and it’s been really wonderful.”

Creature fans are going to be happy to find out that we’re going to see — wait for it — baby Nifflers! Redmayne said, “It’s probably been my favorite scene to shoot so far, involves the baby Nifflers. They’re just causing havoc and it coincided with the time that I now have a 15-month-old child and the baby Nifflers retain many of the qualities of my 15-month-old. What’s lovely is Pickett and the Niffler and the babies have returned along with new creatures. They’re unique and useful and dangerous and exciting as– if not more so than the first. So it’s been wonderful. That side of it for me is such– it’s so lovely because you have all this viz effects department who are sort of actors in themselves, coming up with ideas. You then have Jo’s book and how she imagined them.”

We also spoke to Ezra Miller about playing Credence. After gushing with us about seeing magical Paris, he talked about Credence’s journey. “I would say that he is both free and burdened in new ways. Obviously, there is an element of self-awareness, um, that brings both of those factors into play. So he’s free of a lot of the confines he’s known, and he’s free of certain sense of uncertainty that he’s known. But with the consciousness of his reality comes also heavy burdens, and obviously, he’s a bit of a ticking time bomb given his particular magical condition. And there is a burden that comes in the form of a burning need to know more about who he actually is and to understand the roots that he’s growing from, because obviously he’s had a very fragmented experience up to this point. So this quest for identity, which I can’t relate to at all. No one knows what that’s like to try and figure out who you are.”

He also revealed a bit about the magic circus Credence joins.

He said, “The Circus Arcanus. It’s really interesting. I mean obviously the histories of sideshows, uh, are disturbing ones. This era — that world would have been a world of a lot of heavy exploitation. Definitely some animal cruelty. At the very least, PETA would have been displeased. It’s interesting because we heard in Credence’s narrative in the first film,the derogatory term freak thrown at him in a way that was deeply effective, right? I find it really interesting that we find him here in a sideshow, in a freak show as they were known. I mean obviously it’s fascinating to be a part of this exploration of what that world looked like, but in the magical context, because obviously also for all of its exploitative practices, it’s a place where some people with strange abilities and incredible talents and, were sort of being glimpsed by the real Muggle world, you know?”

We asked about the relationship between Grindelwald and Credence and the abuse that was obviously there. He said, “I definitely felt personally that a lot of the exploration with Credence revolved around the idea of abuse and some of the different ways that trauma can happen to a young person. I definitely personally see that in a lot of the exploration of Credence. Something interesting about sort of this idea of light and dark magic, and it’s alluded to, it’s said many times in this series, that love is a form of light magic, right? And so Grindelwald’s manipulation of love, targeting that deficit that he could perceive in Credence is a form of abuse. You could also say it’s a form of dark magic to wield power over that human need.”

We also spoke to Callum Turner who told us about Theseus, Newt’s brother. He said, “He’s gone through the same schooling obviously, but once he got out he decided that the establishment was the way to fight the good fight. Theseus is or may be quite more rigid or just part of the establishment. You know, he’s the head Auror at the Ministry.”

Turner told us that his character is far more stern than Newt. As himself, however, he was excited and happy as he spoke to us.

We asked him what experience was the most fun for him so far. He told us, “Oh, man, like every single day is so nice to come into work, like everyone’s amazing. On like a professional level it blows my mind every time we go into a set and it’s just, pff, it’s huge. I mean, some of the money they must spend on these sets is more than some of the movies that I’ve done. It’s just– it’s amazing. It really is a real pleasure.”

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is being directed by David Yates, from a screenplay by J.K. Rowling, and produced by David Heyman, J.K. Rowling, Steve Kloves and Lionel Wigram. The film will debut in theaters November 16, 2018. Are you guys excited for Fantastic Beast: The Crimes of Grindelwald? Let us know in the comments.