David Yates teased a bit about Albus Dumbledore's character in the second installment of the
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them in the December issue of SFX magazine (which can be purchased
here).
The director also commented on narrowing down his casting of Dumbledore to a couple of potential actors, but would not say whom as of yet. He, along with producer David Heyman, are some of the few so far to have read the script for the sequel by J.K. Rowling. The publication itself released new promos of Newt Scamander and Tina Goldstein on the cover, and of Eddie Redmayne speaking with Yates on set.
Quote:
David Yates: The worlds are connected, and there are characters that exist in both. [We hear of] Dumbledore in this film, and we see him in the next part of the trilogy [note, this was reported on before the five movies were confirmed earlier this month]. He teaches at Hogwarts…
The scenes that Jo has written are lovely. The younger Dumbledore is delightful. He’s very mischievous and enormous fun and a bit of a political animal. I’m yet to cast him. I’ve got a couple of ideas, though…”
Do note that it is highly unlikely that Sir Michael Gambon will return to play Professor Dumbledore, as in the
Fantastic Beasts series he is only around 40 years old and still Transfiguration professor at Hogwarts.
Eddie Redmayne was one of the many cast members interviewed by SFX, and commented a bit more in detail about his first meeting with author J.K. Rowling, from whom he tried to get as much information about Newt Scamander as he could. Rowling even tipped him off about the unusual gait with which Newt walks in the series.
Quote:
Did J.K. Rowling discuss the role with you beforehand?
Eddie Redmayne: I was lucky enough to meet her just before we started filming. At that point I was so in awe of her. I wanted to be all, “Lovely to meet you!” but we only had an hour so I just went, “So, Newt?” You can ask her anything. Any detail from the smallest nuance. She is so in love with her characters. By that point I’d done so much work on who [Newt] was, and it was two people just talking at each other. It was so helpful.
Was there anything about Newt that you specifically wanted to nail?
Redmayne: Yeah, when [JK Rowling] describes Newt walking through the streets of New York, she describes him as walking to his own rhythm. There’s a Buster Keaton vibe quality, she wrote. So I actually decided to work with this guy called Alex Reynolds who’s a dancer by trade. Newt has a unique physicality that was very specific to him.
The final highlight from the SFX feature spread, which does include new interviews with Alison Sudol, Dan Fogler, Colin Farrell and Heyman as well, will be of Katherine Waterston's hilarious anecdote of her favorite moment shooting the first
Fantastic Beasts movie.
Quote:
Do you have a favourite moment from shooting?
Katherine Waterston: Well, one of the things you have to do sometimes, for eye‑line, is to look at a stick with an X on it and imagine it was a creature. It was a challenge to engage with. Eddie and I were sitting between set‑ups and I said, “Man, sometimes I just look at these Xs and it’s tricky trying to find something to connect to. I look at them and I don’t feel anything.”
And Eddie went, “Yeah, yeah. Do you stay in touch with a lot of your exes?” And I was like, “Eddie, the X on the stick!” He thought I was getting really deep!
Again, for anyone interested in reading the 10-page spread on
Fantastic Beasts, get the SFX copy
here, which has discussions from Yates and Heyman about themes and creation of New York City in 1926.
Read SnitchSeeker's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them set visit reports right here, including about the great things the cast said about Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, and how 1926-era New York City came to life.
