Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is a 2018 fantasy film directed by David Yates and written by J. K. Rowling. The sequel to Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016), it is the second instalment in the Fantastic Beasts film series and the tenth overall in the Wizarding World franchise. It features an ensemble cast including 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. Set in 1927, it follows Newt Scamander and Albus Dumbledore as they attempt to take down the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald while facing new threats in a more divided wizarding world.

A second Fantastic Beasts film was announced in October 2014, and Rowling confirmed in July 2016 that she had completed the script. Depp was cast in November 2016, causing some controversy due to domestic violence allegations made against him. Law signed on in April 2017. Principal photography began in July 2017 at Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden, in England. Filming also took place in London, Switzerland, and Paris, and wrapped in December 2017.

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald premiered in Paris on 8 November 2018, and was released theatrically in the United Kingdom and United States on 16 November 2018, by Warner Bros. Pictures. It grossed $654.9 million worldwide, making it the tenth highest-grossing film of 2018. It became the lowest-grossing instalment of the Wizarding World franchise upon release, which it remained until the release of its sequel, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, in 2022. It received generally mixed reviews from critics, as it was viewed to have been filled with too many characters and "overburdened" with sequel-dependent details. At the 72nd British Academy Film Awards, the film was nominated for Best Production Design and Best Special Visual Effects. The sequel, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, was released in April 2022.

Plot

In 1927, as the Magical Congress of the United States of America (MACUSA) is transferring the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald to Europe to stand trial, Grindelwald escapes. Three months later in London, Newt Scamander requests the Ministry of Magic lift his international travel ban. While there, he runs into former Hogwarts classmate Leta Lestrange, the fiancée of his brother, Theseus. The Ministry will grant Newt's request if he agrees to help Theseus locate Credence Barebone, who is in Paris. Newt declines after learning he must work with ruthless bounty hunter Gunnar Grimmson. Albus Dumbledore (revealed to have indirectly but intentionally sent Newt to New York) also asks Newt to find Credence, believing Credence is Leta's long-lost half-brother, Corvus Lestrange V.

Newt is visited by his American friends Queenie Goldstein and Jacob Kowalski, a non-magical person. Jacob has regained his memories that were erased the previous year. Newt learns that Queenie's sister Tina Goldstein mistakenly believed Newt and Leta were engaged and began seeing someone else. Newt realizes that Queenie enchanted Jacob and came to London to circumvent the marriage ban between wizards and non-magical people. After Newt lifts the enchantment, Jacob refuses to marry Queenie, fearing the consequences she would face. Upset, Queenie leaves to find Tina, who is searching for Credence in Paris. Newt and Jacob follow soon after, using a Portkey, a magical transport method, to get around Newt's ban on international travel.

In Paris, Credence escapes the Circus Arcanus with captive performer Nagini, a woman cursed to transform into a snake permanently. Searching for Credence's birth mother, they locate half-elf servant Irma Dugard, who brought him to America for adoption. Grimmson, secretly a Grindelwald follower, kills Irma before she reveals who sent her. Tina meets Yusuf Kama, who is also hunting Credence. Newt and Jacob trail Yusuf to Tina, finding her being held hostage. Yusuf also imprisons them, explaining he made an Unbreakable Vow to kill Corvus Lestrange V, whom he believes is Credence. Meanwhile, a distraught Queenie is brought to Grindelwald; knowing Queenie's abilities, he allows her to leave while manipulating her into joining him through her desire to marry Jacob.

Newt and Tina escape from Yusuf and infiltrate the French Ministry of Magic to search for documents confirming Credence's identity, but Leta and Theseus discover them. Newt and Tina reunite after Newt explains he was never engaged to Leta. They go to the Lestrange family tomb and find Yusuf confronting Credence and Nagini. Yusuf reveals that he is carrying out his father, Mustafa's, request to avenge his mother, Laurena: she was kidnapped by Corvus Lestrange IV using the Imperius Curse, and died giving birth to Leta, Yusuf's half-sister. Corvus IV remarried and had Corvus V. He sent Corvus V to America for adoption to keep him safe after discovering Yusuf's revenge plot. Leta reveals that she unintentionally caused Corvus V's death: sailing to America, Leta, unable to stand her baby brother's constant crying, switched her baby brother with another infant, Credence; the ship eventually sank, and Corvus drowned.

The group enters a rally of Grindelwald's followers. Jacob is searching for Queenie, who is among the attendees. Grindelwald displays a vision of a future global war, and rails against laws prohibiting wizards from preventing such a tragedy. As Theseus and the Aurors surround the rally, Grindelwald prompts his followers to spread his message across Europe. He conjures a ring of blue fire that kills the retreating Aurors and that only his most loyal followers can safely cross. Queenie and Credence cross the fire despite Jacob's and Nagini's protests, while Leta sacrifices herself to allow others to escape. As Grindelwald and his followers depart, the remaining wizards and the immortal alchemist Nicolas Flamel extinguish the fire. Newt joins the fight against Grindelwald.

At Hogwarts, Newt presents Dumbledore with a vial that Newt's Niffler stole from Grindelwald. It contains a blood pact that Grindelwald and Dumbledore made in their youth that prevents them from dueling each other; Dumbledore believes it can be destroyed. At Nurmengard Castle, Grindelwald presents Credence with a wand along with his phoenix, and reveals Credence's possible identity: Aurelius Dumbledore.