At the end of 2016’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, a prequel to J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter stories, Hogwarts magizoologist Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) had helped capture Gellert Grindelwald (Johnny Depp), who’d been running rampant in New York City. The two parallel romantic storylines were both left open ended.
In the first few minutes of David Yates’ second installment, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, the dark wizard escapes from prison and is on the loose again (because, of course). Young professor Dumbledore calls on Newt Scamander to meet him in London, where the great wizard does what Dumbledore does best: asks the impossible of a young, sloppy-haired, unlikely hero. Even though Dumbledore is apparently Grindelwald’s only equal on the planet, Dumbledore manipulates Newt Scamander and pressures him to go to Paris to try to defeat defeat Grindelwald. Meanwhile there’s Credence Barebone (Ezra Miller) who’s vulnerable to being seduced over to the dark side due to a parasite inside of him called an Obscurus.