Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016) is far more than a Harry Potter cash-in. It’s a bold, sometimes messy, but deeply heartfelt expansion of a universe fans never wanted to leave. From its promotional blitz to its November box office dominance, the film captured a moment when the wizarding world felt infinite again. As we look toward the next decade, this first chapter remains a fantastic — if flawed — gem.
The climax of the film reveals that the chaos in New York was orchestrated by Gellert Grindelwald, disguised as Percival Graves. This twist shifts the series from a self-contained adventure into a sprawling prequel saga. While the film balances these two identities—whimsical beast-hunt and dark political thriller—it occasionally suffers from the weight of its own world-building. However, the strength of its central quartet (Newt, Jacob, Tina, and Queenie) keeps the story grounded in human emotion. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 2016 10...
The film is set in 1926, seventy years before Harry Potter receives his letter from Hogwarts. The wizarding world is in a state of turmoil, as the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald has been causing havoc across Europe, bringing magical and non-magical (No-Maj) communities to the brink of conflict. This is the world that British magizoologist Newt Scamander steps into as he arrives in New York City. Newt is not your typical magical protagonist. He is a shy, eccentric, and deeply empathetic wizard who prefers the company of beasts over people. As he explains, his philosophy is that “worrying means you suffer twice,” a sentiment that sets him apart from the more overtly heroic characters of the past. He carries with him a nondescript leather briefcase, which is, in reality, a fantastic suitcase that is magically expanded to house a vast, multi-terrain sanctuary for a whole host of magical creatures. Newt’s mission is simple: to travel to Arizona to release a young Thunderbird named Frank back into the wild. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)