By Katie Bellman
Warner Bros. presented a new look at Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald at this year's San Diego Comic-Con, including a panel discussion with actors Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Alison Sudol, Ezra Miller, Claudia Kim, Callum Turner, Zoe Kravitz, Dan Fogler, and Jude Law. As well as this surprise guest:
SnitchSeeker was at Hall H live for a full breakdown of events, starting off with Redmayne's introduction. That, as well as photos of the cast, can be found below.
The panel began with a giant screens slowly opening up until they surrounded our sides like an IMAX theater. We saw Newt looking inside his case, but what was he looking at? Oh! Us! Newt spoke to the whole audience who were trapped inside his case. As he shut it, beautiful artwork of the characters appeared on screen, drawn in Victorian-style aesthetic.
As the hall lights went down, our Deathly Hallows wristbands began to glow blue because Eddie Redmayne himself was waving his wand at the audience, creating an orchestra-esque scene with him as the conductor. Before the rest of the cast came out, Redmayne answered a fan question from the audience, to which he gave the perfect response. When asked what character he'd like to play in the Harry Potter films, he had no hesitation in answering, "Hagrid" because "he loves those creatures almost as much, if not more, than Newt does."
The rest of the cast was introduced as they came onstage one by one: Katherine Waterson, Alison Sudol, Ezra Miller, Callum Turner, Zoe Kravitz, Claudia Kim and Jude Law. Then finally the new trailer we've all been waiting to see was debuted.
The cast were asked, "What's it like to be part of this world as it expands?" Eddie Redmayne took the reigns on this question and his love for not only Fantastic Beasts, but the original Harry Potter series as well. It was clear as he spoke with wonder and admiration about how "when you get to swim in this world, it has great creative and imaginative privileges."
Callum Turner was mesmerized as well by how far the series has spread between different communities. He and Eddie Redmayne seemed to be on the same wavelength, both elaborating on the universality of the wizarding world. Conspiracy theory - maybe they actually ARE brothers. Overall, the rest of the cast affirmed that they were all previous Harry Potter fans, even before Fantastic Beasts.
Ezra Miller jumped at the chance to speak about his biggest geek-out moment while filming - and I think for all of us - when he said, "There's nothing to not geek out over! Every single aspect of this movie is a geek-out fiasco!" He began to list amazing things from the Harry Potter series - Hogwarts, Dumbledore, nifflers - before sadly cutting himself off because "we're on a time limit here."
The mic was passed to Jude Law for the more serious question of what is a stake for these beloved characters in these films. So, what's at stake? Everything. Muggles vs. wizards vs. Grindelwald, and the big question becomes: Who's side are you on? Law warned that this is "the darkest this world has gone before," to which the rest of the cast solemnly nodded - except for Ezra, who forebodingly said, "Definitely."
When the cast was asked what they'd do if they had magic in our world, Zoe Kravitz had a politically relevant answer prepared: "Impeach Trump!" She then put Dan Fogler on the spot to make up that spell, since as he proved, he's good at coming up with them on set. His response was, "Impeachious Maximus!" Ezra Miller chimed in on the same vein with the desire to destroy the patriarchy (something that he already does all the time, his outfit being a perfect example).
The cast was then given a difficult challenge: to describe the film in one word. Eddie Redmayne started strong with the word "labyrinthine," which the cast bickered about while going down the line because now they had to top his "SAT-level word." Here are the results:
Eddie: Labyrinthine.
Ezra: You're first in line! Where's the minotaur?
Katherine: Epic. It's everything that's great about the previous film and more.
Callum: Dangerous.
Ezra (again): Perturbing.
Alison: I'm going to go anti-SAT and say: bananas.
With all of that out of the way, the most important topic we all are thinking ... hot Dumbledore, as the moderator said. How old is he? How different is he from the Dumbledore we've come to know and love? Well, Dumbledore and Jude Law happen to be the same age, a "very sprightly 45."
One final surprise at the end of the panel: Seeing Johnny Depp on stage in full Grindelwald costume and acting as him was amazing. You could sense how he was feeding off the energy of the crowd as he gave a very motivational speech that seemed positive, until you looked closer at the contents.
He had the allure of manipulative politicians; it was the perfect conclusion to the panel as the actors were saying goodbye to the audience and we're left with darkness and a foreboding feeling that the cast had all agreed the film had. The live aspect of Depp actually being there in character was truly one of the coolest things I've ever seen and I'm left the edge of my seat until November.