Voila! EW Reveals Details About the Wizarding World in France

Jan 18, 2018

Posted by: Dawn Johnson

BigNews, Directors, Fandom, Fans, Fantastic Beasts, Fantastic Beasts Movie, Films, Interviews, J.K. Rowling, Media, Movies, News, Pottermore, Yates, Yates Interviews

For the second time this week Entertainment Weekly released details hinting at what fans can expect from upcoming films in the Fantastic Beasts series–and it only leaves us wanting more!

Yesterday Leaky covered the news that the next three films will be set in different cities. Though it’s always possible Newt, Dumbledore, and the cast of other major characters could revisit sites in England, New York, or Paris, the primary location of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, this confirms that future films will continue to expand the wizarding world in the quest to end Grindelwald’s plans for wizard superiority–a plan that, like many totalitarian rulers, looks to go global.

The report also verified the casting of Linda Santiago in the role of Credence Barebone’s aunt. This added weight to Yates promise that Barebone will play a “pivotal” part in the second installment and raises further questions about his family heritage.

Leaky previously engaged in a lengthy analysis of the many potential plot connections, including the ways Rowling could tie in known ancient wizarding families such as the Gaunts, Lestranges, and Peverells, not to mention other pureblood families like the Malfoys, Princes, and Blacks.

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Could Credence come from a tenuous branch of one of these deeply-rooted family trees? We know through J.K. Rowling’s account of Ilvermorny’s history on Pottermore, founding member Isolt Sayre fled Europe for America in an effort to escape the cruelty and obsessions of her aunt, Gormlaith Gaunt. While the Gaunts’ predilection for the pureblood mania of Salazar Slytherin didn’t make it to America with Sayre, the bloodline did, and we know so little of Barebone’s past that it’s entirely possible he himself has estranged connections to the family.

It’s just as possible we will discover he is related to one of the other wizarding families mentioned above, explaining his innate magical power and, beyond his value as an Obscurial, increasing Grindelwald’s interest in an ally of such prominence.

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Imdb.com also now lists Maja Bloom as an unnamed Carrow, which seems to further confirm casting details Leaky discovered and analyzed last month. The rumored list hinted at many potential plot directions, including Grindelwald’s intention to unleash strategically-targeted acts of terrorism on the wizarding communities in Europe!

This will undoubtedly be an horrific turning point in the story and explain the growing cast of characters as wizards of the world unite to fight against Grindelwald’s violent efforts to achieve his ends. This will be especially difficult to watch as Entertainment Weekly reveals in its latest report that French wizards live in relative peace and harmony with their “muggle” counterparts. Therefore, Grindelwald will have to go to more extreme lengths to stir up division among them.

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Unlike the fearful existence of wizards in America, Yates explained:

“[The wizarding world in Paris is] quite glamorous, it’s quite beautiful. There’s a community that lives alongside the muggle community, it’s much freer than in New York, where there’s segregation…Paris is a bit like England, actually, not so hung up about the differences between the two. Magical people can freely move into non-magical communities as long as they’re discrete about their talents…”

While the dynamic between muggles and wizards may be markedly different in the countries featured in the first two Fantastic Beasts films, the terms are not. Like the self-explanatory No-Maj in the United States, Yates revealed that French muggles will simply be called “non-magique.”. Interestingly, this is different to the word “muggle” in the French editions of Harry Potter, which is simply “un moldu”, translated by Jean-François Ménard (who speaks more about the choice, in French, here). What’s your take on this? Could the word have changed over time? Couldn’t Newt & Co have had “un moldu” explained to them if necessary, as Harry had “muggle” explained when he first encountered the word?

We’re interested to see what Rowling will christen muggles in the other countries our heroes are bound to visit, and whether the word used will continue to differ from the translated editions of Harry Potter. Given that Rowling already knows where the third story will be set, we’re sure she has that detail tucked away as well. What an exciting adventure it will be to finally explore this world she knows so intimately!





The Leaky Cauldron is not associated with J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros., or any of the individuals or companies associated with producing and publishing Harry Potter books and films.