Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

**Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald** is a 2018 film starring Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Ezra Miller, Zoë Kravitz, Callum Turner, Claudia Kim, William Nadylam, Kevin Guthrie, Jude Law and Johnny Depp, directed by David Yates, written by J.K. Rowling and produced by David Heyman, Steve Kloves, Rowling and Lionel Wigram.

The film was a financial failure as it generated a loss of $72 million.

## Plot

In 1927, the Magical Congress of the United States of America (MACUSA) is transferring the powerful dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald to London to be tried for his crimes. Grindelwald escapes, helped by Abernathy, a former MACUSA employee.

Three months later in London, Newt Scamander runs into Leta Lestrange, an old Hogwarts classmate now engaged to his Auror brother, Theseus. The Ministry of Magic asks Newt if he will work alongside Theseus to locate Credence Barebone in Paris. Newt declines, and the Auror Grimmson is dispatched in his place. Later, Albus Dumbledore persuades Newt to go, revealing that he is the reason the events of the previous movie took place.

Newt's American friends, Queenie Goldstein and Jacob Kowalski, visit him unexpectedly. Jacob has retained most of his memories from the 1926 Obliviation order in New York. Queenie tells Newt that she and Jacob have followed her sister, Tina, to Europe; Tina is searching for Credence in Paris. Queenie says that Tina believes Newt is betrothed to Leta Lestrange. Newt says she confused him with Theseus. He deduces that Queenie has enchanted Jacob into eloping to circumvent MACUSA's marriage ban between wizards and muggles. After Newt lifts the charm, Jacob and Queenie quarrel about marrying, and an upset Queenie leaves to find Tina. Newt and Jacob follow to Paris.

In Paris, Tina searches for Credence at the Circus Arcanus. Credence and a circus freak named Nagini escape after causing a distraction. While searching for Credence's birth mother, he and Nagini locate the servant who put him up for adoption. However, Grimmson, who is secretly working for Grindelwald, arrives and kills her. Meanwhile, Tina meets Yusuf Kama who is also hunting Credence. Newt and Jacob follow Yusuf to Tina, and Yusuf explains that he made an Unbreakable Vow to kill Credence, who he believes is his step-brother and the last of the Lestrange family.

A distraught Queenie loses her way and is overwhelmed in Paris when she cannot locate her sister, and is unknowingly convinced into being taken to Grindelwald's hideout. Aware of Queenie's Legilimens ability, he manipulates and confuses her to think about joining him in order to marry Jacob.

Newt and Tina infiltrate the French Ministry of Magic for documents that can confirm Credence's identity but the pair is discovered by Leta and Theseus. Newt and Tina reconcile after he explains he was never engaged to Leta. Their search for information about Credence leads them to the Lestrange family tomb. Yusuf says that he and Leta have the same mother, and Leta reveals that she unintentionally killed her infant brother and thus he cannot be Credence. However, a fabricated trail led Credence to the tomb, where Grindelwald is holding a rally for his followers. Jacob finds Queenie at the rally.

At the rally, Grindelwald preaches against laws forcing wizards to be hidden from muggles, and utilizes future images of World War II to call for worldwide wizard supremacy and domination. Led by Theseus, Aurors surround the rally, but Grindelwald creates a diversion while sending his followers across Europe to spread his message. Grindelwald casts a circle of blue flame to divide followers from enemies. Credence and Queenie cross over to join him, while Leta sacrifices herself by attacking Grindelwald, allowing Newt, Tina, Jacob, Yusuf, Nagini, and Theseus to escape. As Grindelwald leaves, the remaining heroes unite alongside the immortal alchemist Nicolas Flamel to defeat Grindelwald's blue flame. Newt now realises he must join the fight.

At Hogwarts, Newt gives Dumbledore a vial stolen from Grindelwald. It contains the blood pact that Grindelwald and Dumbledore, once inseparable best friends, made with one another in their youth. Newt surmises that this has prevented Dumbledore and Grindelwald from duelling each other. Dumbledore confirms this, but believes it may be possible to destroy the pact. At his Nurmengard base in Austria, Grindelwald reveals Credence's true identity as Aurelius Dumbledore, Albus' long-lost brother and the only person powerful enough to defeat him. Queenie uses her mind-reading ability to advise Grindelwald on ways to control Credence. A baby bird that Credence had been caring for is revealed to be a phoenix, a bird associated with the Dumbledore family.