The third installment in the Fantastic Beasts franchise has a lot of work to do in order to win over the huge number of fans left disappointed by both the on- and off-screen events to have unfolded since The Crimes of Grindelwald cut to black.
Not only did it end up as the worst-reviewed and lowest-grossing installment in the extended Wizarding World thus far, but there’s the threat of a boycott looming over the production’s head after Johnny Depp was forced to resign as main antagonist Grindelwald, as well as the continued backlash aimed towards creator and screenwriter J.K. Rowling.
It may have largely been swept under the rug, but there’s also plenty of folks who haven’t forgotten the viral video of Ezra Miller choking out a fan, either. That’s without even mentioning the controversial ending to The Crimes of Grindelwald that ended on the cliffhanger that the actor’s Credence Barebone was actually born Aurelius Dumbledore.
Understandably, the revelation didn’t sit well with a lot of longtime Harry Potter fans, and a new rumor claims that the contentious twist will almost immediately be retconned in Fantastic Beasts 3. As per the report, Credence will instead be positioned as the son of Aberforth Dumbedore, making him Albus’ nephew instead of sibling. It’ll be revealed that Aberforth had an affair with a woman who ended up bearing his child before both of them were sent away and his lineage kept secret.
If Fantastic Beasts 3 does head down this route, then it could easily fall into the same traps that befell the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, in that directly connecting every major event that’s ever happened across the series to just one or two families only narrows the scope of the expanded mythology in the long run.