Crossover Characters in Both Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts
September 22, 2020—In Episode 8 of Season 2, Victoria and I discussed the characters and settings chosen for the Fantastic Beast movies. We posited that one reason for telling a story in which some of our beloved Harry Potter characters take part is to help grandfather in those fans who can be manipulated by nostalgia, curiosity, and shameless Easter eggs (she says, as she sheepishly raises her hand). So let’s take a look at those characters and their roles in the respective series.
1. Gellert Grindelwald
As the only character on this list who actually appears in the Harry Potter series and in both Fantastic Beasts movies, Grindelwald gets top billing. Though he’s spoken of with relative frequency in the Harry Potter books as a previous Dark Lord whom Dumbledore defeated, we don’t actually meet him until Book 7 (via Voldemort), when he’s suddenly being interrogated and killed in a far-off prison by the new Dark Lord in town. What Harry learns (and we learn) from the encounter is that, despite their differences and Grindelwald’s overall evilness, Grindelwald cared enough about Dumbledore to protect his corpse from defilement even in the face of torture. So he’s a complex guy.
And since he’s the primary villain of the Fantastic Beasts movies, we can expect some of that complexity to be unraveled in the coming movies. We’ve already discovered that he’s a master manipulator with a sympathetic message to many witches and wizards, that he’s willing and able to pull off a Crouch Jr.-esque long con, that he’s obsessed with the Deathly Hallows and Obscurials, and that he’s amoral enough to kill a baby on sight.
2. Albus Dumbledore
Dumbledore, of course, appears in all seven Harry Potter books and the second Fantastic Beasts movie, and we can expect appearances in the remaining three. While I could spend the next years’ worth of posts analyzing what we know of Dumbledore’s character, I’ll limit myself to what we’ve learned from the prequel movies for now.
In Crimes of Grindelwald, we meet a younger, more impetuous Dumbledore, one who hasn’t yet attained the universal devotion and awe he enjoys in his later years. This means that he has limits that we’re not used to seeing for Dumbledore, that he can’t act unilaterally at will at Hogwarts or with the Ministry. His relationship with Grindelwald hasn’t yet come to its dramatic conclusion, and without that closure, he’s more conflicted than he seems in the books. It’ll be interesting to see how his character develops in future movies now that he’s off the bench plot-wise and will be an active player going forward.
(And speaking of the dramatic conclusion, I can’t wait to discover the truth of the final battle between the two. Was JKR foreshadowing when Rita Skeeter claimed it was an anticlimactic waving of a white flag, or was it a misdirect?)
3. Nagini
In the Harry Potter books, Nagini is a snake, full-stop. Except… she’s a highly intelligent snake who is capable of actively participating in her master’s schemes and even passably imitating a human. These characteristics were attributed by fans to the fact that she is housing a piece of Voldemort’s soul, until promotions for the second Fantastic Beasts movie revealed otherwise.
Nagini is a Maledictus, a woman who is cursed with a secondary snake form in which she spends more and more time over the course of her life until she is incapable of returning to her human form. Whether this is something JKR always knew but didn’t include or whether she added it specifically for the movies is a matter of great contention (at least within my own brain). But either way, the story of how she goes from an ally of Newt Scamander in the fight against Grindelwald to an effective slave of Lord Voldemort will be a fascinating one.
4. Nicolas Flamel (mentioned)
We never meet Flamel in the books, though his decision to hide the Sorcerer’s Stone at Hogwarts is a critical plot point. When we saw him for the first time in the Fantastic Beasts movies, though, we realized why he is so willing to be talked into shuffling off this mortal coil after Book 1. Apparently, the Elixir of Life, while keeping a person alive, does not have anti-aging properties. Thus, the centuries-old man looks a medium-strength breeze away from disintegrating entirely.
5. Newt Scamander (mentioned)
As the protagonist of the Fantastic Beasts movies, we’ve gotten to know Newt pretty well and will probably get to know him even better going forward. He is a socially awkward man who works to connect with people he likes, has a deep (and perhaps hazardous) love of animals, had his heart broken at a young age, and is willing to step up when it’s the right thing to do (even though he would rather be left out of major conflicts and intrigues).
Of course, before the movies were released, all we knew was that he wrote Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. But apparently JKR always knew who he was and had a soft spot for him—thus her marrying his grandson to Luna and then going back in time to dedicate 5 movies to him.
Who else might appear?
Bathilda Bagshot: Given that she knows both Dumbledore and Grindelwald, was a first-hand witness to their relationship, and is actually related to Grindelwald, it wouldn’t be surprising for her to be written in. I just hope she doesn’t ever meet Nagini, as that would be a bit…*cough*.
Horace Slughorn: Slughorn is one of Dumbledore’s colleagues at this time, so they certainly interact and are parts of one another’s lives. While we don’t get the idea that he is heavily involved in the Grindelwald war based on the way he handles the Voldemort wars, he could certainly make an appearance at some point.
Aberforth Dumbledore: Again, he knows both Dumbledore and Grindelwald and was witness to their plots to take over the world. Plus, unlike Bagshot, he has Strong Feelings about them both.
Rubeus Hagrid: Though probably not destined to be a main character, Hagrid will be at Hogwarts with Dumbledore and have his favor by the time the series ends. Because of his “troubled past,” few might suspect Dumbledore of using Hagrid as a sounding board or of sending him on covert assignments after his expulsion. Which is exactly why Dumbledore might do it.
The Ghosts (and Peeves): Nearly Headless Nick, the Grey Lady, the Bloody Baron, the Fat Friar, Peeves… They’re all at Hogwarts, where parts of the movies will presumably be set. Perhaps even Moaning Myrtle will have been ordered away from Olive Hornby and back to the castle by the Ministry before it’s all over.
Tom Riddle and His Original Death Eaters: While I don’t expect them to become main characters, Voldemort and his Knights of Walpurgis (Abraxas Malfoy, Augustus Rookwood, Antonin Dolohov, etc.) are alive during this time and could make cameo appearances in later movies.