FILM · 2016 · UK
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
- Directed by
- David Yates
- Runtime
- 133 min
- Studio
- Heyday Films, Warner Bros. Pictures
102 archived facts 7 topics 1 source Last reviewed Sep 2026
In 1926, Newt Scamander arrives at the Magical Congress of the United States of America with a magically expanded briefcase, which houses a number of dangerous creatures and their habitats. When the creatures escape from the briefcase, it sends the American wizarding authorities after Newt, and threatens to strain even further the state of magical and non-magical relations.
Summary: TMDB
9 Facts on the Deeper Meaning of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
- #024
When Mary Lou asks Newt "Are you a seeker?", he replies: "More of a chaser." This has a double meaning since both Seeker and Chaser are positions in Quidditch, and it also hints at the fact that he is constantly chasing creatures.
- #041
The brightly colored books seen on the shelf behind Jacob during dinner in Queenie and Tina's apartment are the seven volumes of Chadwick's Charms, the American equivalent of The Standard Book of Spells used at Hogwarts. An interesting connection to the Harry Potter series is that the book's author, Chadwick Boot, is the older brother of Webster Boot, an ancestor of Harry's schoolmate Terry Boot, who returned to England as a pioneering Auror. The brothers were the adopted sons of Ilvermorny's founders, Isolt Sayre and her husband James Steward.
- #044
Contains a major spoiler — show
There are several hints that Percival Graves is Gellert Grindelwald in disguise: 1. Graves and Grindelwald have similar hairstyles. 2. During the interrogation, Graves pays particular attention to Albus Dumbledore's great respect for Newt Scamander. According to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Dumbledore and Grindelwald were close friends and were equally obsessed with the Deathly Hallows. 3. Later, shots from the perspective of someone floating over the city reveal that Graves travels as smoke. In the films, traveling as smoke is associated with the dark arts, because the other people seen traveling this way in this fictional universe are Death Eaters and Voldemort. 4. At a secret meeting between Graves and Credence Barebone, Graves gives Credence a spell that can summon him if he needs help. The charm is the symbol of the Deathly Hallows. In the Harry Potter books it is also understood to be the mark of Grindelwald, once mentioned during his anti-Muggle terrorism campaign between the 1920s and 1940s. 5. Dumbledore's sister Ariana is said to have hosted an Obscurus, which is why in the books she was prone to attacking with powerful magic after trying to suppress it. Save for Scamander, Graves appears to be the only one in this film who knows about the Obscurus — at least enough to think he can use Credence for his treacherous purposes. 6. Graves, who believes Credence has a non-magical and a magical parentage, refers to him as a firecracker. Given that the magical community refers to non-magical people of non-magical origin as No-Maj rather than Muggles, it is entirely possible they have another term for firecrackers. If so, Graves-Grindelwald made a mistake and revealed his European origin. 7. Graves's first name is Percival. Percival is one of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore's middle names. Grindelwald may have consciously or unconsciously recalled "Percival" and used it as his alias.
- #045
In the opening scene, when the Warner Bros. logo appears, the first sequence of notes is the familiar musical motif used throughout the Harry Potter films (called "Hedwig's Theme" by John Williams) before it turns into an original composition.
- #065
It was released fifteen years and two days after Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001).
- #070
Samantha Morton points to another connection between the Harry Potter world and Middle-earth. J. K. Rowling worked in references such as Bathilda Bagshot (named after Bagshot Row, a street in Hobbiton) and Neville Longbottom (Longbottom Leaf is a type of pipe-weed). Morton is the daughter-in-law of Sir Ian Holm, who not only played Bilbo in Sir Peter Jackson's films but also voiced Frodo in the BBC Radio series, in which Bill Nighy (Rufus Scrimgeour) voiced Sam and Sir Robert Stephens (the ex-husband of Dame Maggie Smith (Minerva McGonagall)) voiced Aragorn. Also, Sir John Hurt, who played Garrick Ollivander in the Harry Potter films, voiced Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings (1978).
- #071
It was implied that a scene showing many of Newt's wounds and injuries from the period when he was searching for his creatures would be cut. However, this scene did not appear in the Blu-ray and DVD versions of the film.
- #086
In the early bank scene where the Niffler causes chaos, Newt uses the "Alohomora" spell to open the vault and the "Petrificus Totalus" spell to incapacitate the bank manager. Both spells were used by Hermione Granger in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001).
- #097
One of the musical numbers recalls the musical theme of The Polar Express (2004), for instance when Queenie and Newt are talking about Lestrange.
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
Sources for the entries on this page
- IMDb IMDb
Information from external sources is independently selected, consolidated and edited by Arka Evren. Sources are listed for verification and further reading. Encyclopedia text is used under its licence (CC BY-SA). How we work