Trivia / Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

• Actor-Shared Background: Zig-zagged with Leta Lestrange. Her actress, Zoë Kravitz is actually mixed-race (she has two white grandparents), but it still doesn't fit with Leta's backstory as a child of a white father and a black mother. Also, Leta's father is French and her mother is Senegalese, not American.
• Blooper: The prop department made a new wand for Dumbledore after production wrapped when Rowling pointed out the original one looked too much like the Elder Wand. It was edited in via CGI but the original one is still visible in the flashback scene.
• California Doubling:
  • As the previous film had England double for America, this one has England double for France. Some of it was even filmed on the same backlot, redressed to change New York to Paris.
  • Some of the Hogwarts interiors were filmed at Lacock Abbey, a shooting location that the franchise hadn't used since Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets sixteen years earlier.
• Deleted Role:
  • When the casting call went out for teenage Newt and Leta, there was another character listed named Sebastian who doesn’t appear in the film. Later on, the actor who was cast revealed the role was a younger version of Theseus but the scene was cut before he ever filmed. He was used as an extra at Hogwarts,
  • According to a UK extra database, Kendra Dumbledore was cast in the film as a speaking part but isn’t in the final product.
  • Years after release, MuggleNet got their hands on some photos from a costume test for Ariana during filming, meaning she was in the movie at some point as well. Their source told them that the production team thought too much was going on in the movie already without extended flashback scenes.
• Deleted Scene: Ten have been released as a bonus feature for home video with some being put back into the extended edition. There are others floating around that aren't finished and weren't included in the extras as well:
  • An alternate opening that was not put back in the extended cut, showing Credence reforming from the bit of his Obscurus form the Aurors missed. He would've returned to his foster home, found his adoption papers and then boarded the boat to Paris with the Circus Arcanus with Skender's permission.
  • Newt and Dumbledore's conversation in London revealed that Grindelwald had a vision many years ago of an Obscurial killing the man he fears most — Dumbledore. Dumbledore sent Newt to New York hoping that he could stop Credence from falling under Grindelwald's sway.
  • Leta and Theseus attending a ball, with the guests immediately whispering the rumors about Credence being her brother, highlighting her isolation.
  • A scene with Nagini and Credence bonding over their gifts that make them outcasts in the wizarding world and other scenes showing the strength of their bond.
  • A scene where Newt puts the Niffler family in his case, and Jacob reacts to the baby Nifflers.
  • Shortly after the film came out, Eddie Redmayne revealed in a cast interview that during the chase at the records room, there was a part filmed where Newt loses his case and Tina and Leta work together to get it back and away from the Magtagots.
  • Some other scenes that didn't make the cut include two different scenes between Theseus and Newt (one as kids, one as adults), one where Credence is told by Skender that American woman (Tina) is looking fo him, an extended segment between Queenie and Grindelwald where they walk through a garden, Rosier doing some reconnaissance which was seen in one of the trailers, and a scene between Leta and Theseus discussing whether or not Dumbledore is conspiring with Grindelwald.
• Executive Meddling: It’s now known that this film was the victim of a studio mandated runtime of 2 hours and 15 minutes (most blockbusters clock in about fifteen minute longer than that) and ensuing massacre in the editing room to get it there. Due to sheer number of deleted scenes that were in trailers with completed CGI with some not even being in the official extended cut of the film, it seems this edict came down late in the process. It’s believed that about a total of thirty scenes were either completely cut or significantly watered down for the sake of the runtime. Kevin Tsujihara, who was the CEO of WB at the time, notoriously had cold feet about releasing longer movies because he felt that longer movies could be played fewer times throughout the day and fewer showings meant less money. Tsujihara infamously ordered a whole half hour be cut out of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice after it was completed under this rationale. Like this movie, it was criticized for being choppy and incomprehensible in the theatrical cut with a much better received extended edition released that fixed most of the issues with coherence. It doesn’t seem like entire subplots were cut like in BvS but rather the cuts came in the form of short exposition and characters movements that added up, like one that’s forty seconds long that has Dumbledore explain why he sent Newt to New York in the first place and why Grindelwald was obsessed with finding an obscurial to begin with. There is also known to be an extended version of Queenie’s visit to Grindelwald’s hideout where they walk through a garden together. The Credence and Nagini subplot is the one that is the most expanded on in the extended version. It’s unknown how long the film was in its original form but there are still are some unaccounted for scenes, including at least two flashbacks with Ariana. Tsjuihara was ultimately forced out of his role a few months after this film released after he was found out to be having an extramarital affair with an aspiring actress to whom he was promising roles and auditions in exchange for sexual favors.
• Fake Nationality:
  • American actress Zoë Kravitz as Leta Lestrange, a French-British witch.^note She was born French, but since she attended school in Hogwarts instead of Beauxbatons and is working for the British Ministry of Magic, she must have become a British citizen at some point.
  • Claudia Kim, a Korean, portrayed Nagini, who hailed from the jungles of Indonesia.
• God Never Said That:
  • David Yates made a poorly worded statement that was taken to be him saying that they wouldn’t make Dumbledore explicitly gay ever. What he was actually saying was that it wouldn’t be in this specific movie because he didn’t have a lot of screen time and that they’re saving it for later down the road.
  • When the DVD came out, Complex Magazine ran an article with the salacious headline quoting Rowling in an interview on the extras as saying that Dumbledore and Grindelwald had an “intensely sexual relationship”, to which she was accused of fetishizing it. However, in context she was actually saying the opposite of what was implied. She said it was sexual and that it was intense separately. She never said the sexual aspect was intense. If you watch the interview, she goes on to say that she’s not really interested in the sexual part, she’s more interested in the clash of two equals.
• Meaningful Release Date: The film was released on 16 November 2018 - the 17th anniversary of the release of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Seventeen, not to mention, is the age in the Harry Potter Universe that witches and wizards come of age.
• Missing Trailer Scene:
  • The following exchange, implied by the trailers to happen just before Newt and Jacob go to Paris, never happens in the film:
    Jacob: Are you going somewhere?
    Newt: No. We're going somewhere.
    Jacob: Yes!
  • The trailers also showed scenes of a ball at the French Ministry with Leta attending in a black gown. This was later revealed to be a Deleted Scene.
• Playing Against Type: In the Japanese dub, Grindelwald is voiced by Hiroaki Hirata, a considerable departure from the actor's usual forte — rather fitting, as the original actor isn't known for playing villains either.
• Refitted for Sequel: Or more precisely, "prequel" in this case.
  • J. K. Rowling apparently had the idea of Nagini being human originally for about 20 years before the reveal but never got around to using it in her books. Here, Nagini’s backstory is explored and she is revealed to be a Maledictus, a witch who is cursed to become an animal. Back in 2005, she gave WB a list of potential titles for the seventh book to register domain names and one of them was Curse of Nagini.
  • The British Ministry's vacuum cleaner is based on concept art of a floor polisher that was meant to be included in the Potter films but ultimately went unused.
• Role Reprise: Jamie Campbell Bower and Toby Regbo reprise their roles as the young Grindelwald and young Dumbledore respectively from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, almost a decade since they played the characters and so far the only actors from the Harry Potter films to do so in the Fantastic Beasts films.
• Separated-at-Birth Casting: Eddie Redmayne and his wife had seen Callum Turner in an adaptation of War and Peace some time before the casting for Crimes of Grindelwald and agreed that Callum resembles Eddie.
• Throw It In!: Some of Jacob's lines were improvised, such as, "You don't look a day over 375".
• Underage Casting:
  • Brontis Jodorowsky, a 55-year-old French actor, plays the centuries old Nicolas Flamel (who was previously described as looking fairly advanced in age).
  • Theseus Scamander is described as being nine years older than Newt. He's played by Callum Turner, who’s eight years younger than Eddie Redmayne.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Benedict Cumberbatch, Christian Bale, Mark Strong and Jared Harris were considered for the role of Dumbledore before the casting of Jude Law.
  • Indonesian actress Acha Septriasa was originally cast as Nagini but had to drop out when she got pregnant. Ironically enough, Nagini was written out of the third film due to Kim’s own pregnancy amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • It seems that this movie was significantly longer in its original form and a lot was filmed that was left on the cutting room floor. There are scenes floating around that didn’t even make the extended cut that have completed CGI which would imply it came late in the process. Queenie, Dumbledore, and Credence and Nagini seem to be the biggest victims of the compressed runtime. More can be found about what was cut here.
  • According to Joshua Shea, who played teenaged Newt, the relationship between him and Leta was more overtly romantic at one point than it ended up being in the final product. There was even a kiss between the characters that was filmed.

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