3 Questions ‘Fantastic Beasts 3’ Will Have to Answer After ‘Crimes of Grindelwald’

Fans knew that they were going to have a few questions after seeing Crimes of Grindelwald, but they weren’t anticipating this. The second Fantastic Beasts movie left fans floored and with a few huge questions that they want answers to immediately. Except Fantastic Beasts 3 isn’t supposed to come out until 2020, so we’ll have to unpack these questions and come up with theories until then. There are massive spoilers below, so read at your own risk.

1. Why is Nagini in this story?

When Neville cut the head off of Voldemort’s beloved snake and last horcrux in Deathly Hallows, fans thought they’d seen the last of Nagini. People were shocked to see Nagini (Claudia Kim)—as a human, no less—in the Crimes of Grindelwald trailer. The problem is though, we got virtually no further information about Nagini. The trailer pretty much told us everything minus a few details. Fans already knew she was a Maledictus. She has a blood curse that will eventually cause her to turn into a snake forever.

We only learned that Credence was instrumental in helping Nagini escape from Circus Arcanus in Paris and that Nagini doesn’t strike to kill yet. She basically only has four lines in the entire film. She is a good friend to Credence and wants to help him find out the truth about his family. When it comes to choosing sides—Grindelwald or a blue fire-y death—Nagini sides with Scamander and the aurors. She watches Credence go to Grindelwald and is clearly upset, but she makes no move to follow him. Nagini isn’t evil at this point in Rowling’s narrative.

Fans still have no clue how Nagini becomes Voldemort’s serpent sidekick, though. We also didn’t see Nagini do any magic in this film. Can Maledicti perform magic? Does she become more connected to Grindelwald in the third film? Does he turn her into a snake forever and then Voldemort decides later on in life that he needs to have something from Grindelwald (aside from the Elder Wand)?

We have questions and Nagini’s presence in the film needs to be addressed. She can’t just an easter egg for Harry Potter fans.

2. How is Dumbledore going to destroy the Blood Pact?

In one of the film scenes of the film, Newt gives Dumbledore a broach-like object that holds drops of both Grindelwald and Dumbledore’s blood, which he stole from Grindelwald’s ornate jacket. We saw earlier in the Mirror of Erised that they were making some sort of pact/promise, but we didn’t have any of the details. Dumbledore filled some of those blanks in for us. He told Scamander that he and Grindelwald made a Blood Pact to never fight each other when they were teenagers. This answers a few questions for us. Now, fans know why Dumbledore sent Scamander in his stead. It wasn’t because he had feelings for his old friend. It was because he literally couldn’t fight him. Dumbledore tells Newt he’s going to try to break the Blood Pact, but it seems as sacred as an Unbreakable Vow. Dumbledore has accepted that he has to fight Grindelwald. We’re not sure if Grindelwald is as eager as the future Headmaster, though. We do know that Dumbledore will defeat Grindelwald in a duel in 1945, so he does break the pact somehow. But what does Dumbledore have to sacrifice or give up to undo this powerful magic?

3. How the heck does Dumbledore have a long-lost brother he doesn’t know about?

Albus Dumbledore has always been one step ahead of the game. Fantastic Beasts 3 is going to send Dumbledore reeling. In the final scene of Crimes of Grindelwald, Grindelwald revealed to Credence that he was Aurelius Dumbledore. He implied that Dumbledore was his brother. We have no idea how Grindelwald would know this, and Dumbledore wouldn’t.

The timeline also gets super wonky here. Kendra Dumbledore, Albus’s mother, died in 1899 when she was probably in her 40s. Percival Dumbledore was locked up in Azkaban sometime in the 1880s. We’re not sure if he was released. It’s 1927 in Crimes of Grindelwald. That would mean that Aurelius is 27 or 28. In the first Fantastic Beasts movie though, at Mary Lou Barebone’s, he still seemed like a teenager. At first glance, the math just doesn’t add up.

Rowling’s definitely needs to take some time in the third movie to unpack all of this. It does set up a huge confrontation between Aurelius and Albus. Grindelwald believes that Aurelius Dumbledore is the only man who can kill Albus. Perhaps Grindelwald is also lying to try to stoke up an imaginary feud in Credence’s mind.

Fantastic Beasts 3 can’t come soon enough.