Seven Things We Hope Are Revealed in “Fantastic Beasts”
With the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them movie release right around the corner, speculation over what the film might contain is heating up. Before this past week, we knew hardly anything, but it seems a lot of information has since been dumped on us all at once. With these little tastes of knowledge about the upcoming film, it’s only natural that we should want more. There are still so many unanswered questions! Here is a list of some things we hope to learn from the Fantastic Beasts film.
1. Where do American witches and wizards get an education?
J.K. Rowling has avoided spoiling this for some time, and we’re sure that many Americans would want to know whom to complain to about never having received an acceptance letter from this mysterious school.
2. How is the Magical Congress of the United States of America protected from prying eyes?
So we know that MACUSA is based inside the Woolworth Building in New York City. This was, at that time, the tallest building in the city. Packed with Muggles, of course. How did the magical government exist unseen among these Muggles? The British Ministry of Magic is underground and quite extensive. We know that there are magical expansion spells and all, but can a whole magical government really exist with maybe one secret floor of a building dedicated to its use?
3. Was Hufflepuff considered the lesser Hogwarts House in the 1920s?
With Newt being a Hufflepuff alumnus, we would like to know more about the House’s reputation. Is the assumption of the uselessness of Hufflepuffs something that came to be over time, or was it a stereotype Newt had to prove himself against? Helga Hufflepuff was well respected, and there seem to be quite a few successful witches and wizards who were in Hufflepuff…
4. Where do members of the magical community shop in NYC?
London has Diagon Alley. Was there a similar community for the witches and wizards of New York? Hopefully, it’s very picturesque and can be translated well into a theme park…
5. Why New York?
Of all the places for a Magizoologist to travel to, why New York? From the vague plot synopsis we got, it sounds like Newt will have to round up the animals that got out of his own briefcase, but why did he come to New York in the first place? Was he planning on studying magical pigeons in Central Park?
6. Were there any creatures Luna was right about?
If anyone could answer this question, it would be Newt Scamander, the expert on magical creatures. We would like to know if Luna was ever right in her belief that certain animals existed – maybe they were illegal crossbreeds that were discovered during Newt’s time and died out.
7. Are the Second Salemers descendants of the original Salem prosecutors?
The character descriptions that were released revealed to us the Second Salemers, a fanatical group dedicated to exposing and destroying witches and wizards. We would like to know if this is just a name chosen because of their interests or if it also means they are a group descended from those who partook in the original trials. This could add an interesting layer to the story.
1. I think Rowling really messed up in stating that the Salem Witch Institute was a joke when it did not seem as such in Goblet of Fire. I do hope she addresses that fault in the movie.
2. It could be underground, just like the Ministry of Magic. But I do hope it isn’t because the view from that building is great, and it must have been even better in the 20’s.
3. It was mainly the fans, in part due to Harry’s lack of contact with Hufflepuffs, that made it seem that it was a lesser house. From a neutral point of view, the book never makes it seem as though Hufflepuff was considered a lesser house by any of the students.
4. I do indeed hope to see some kind of magical shopping district akin to Diagon Alley, especially since NYC has so many little neighborhoods that are formed by distinct cultures (e.g. Chinatown, Little Italy, etc.).
5. Why not New York? Many people travel there, and it seems as though the mishap with the beasts could happen in any place, so why not NYC?
6. That seems interesting, but I believe that Newt would have published such a thing.
7. I hope they don’t do something like it is hereditary (and I’m thinking of later seasons of Sabrina the Teenage Witch in which Harvey’s friend was a witch-hunter because his ancestors were as well). I think such a thing would be more ideological than genetic.
There are several characters, who considered Hufflepuff a lesser house. There is Draco, who said, that he would leave if he were in Hufflepuff. There’s Hagrid saying, that many consider Hufflepuff a lot of duffers (that opinion is not shared by Hagrid, but obviously by many in the wizarding world). There’s Neville saying, that he belonged in Hufflepuff, because he doesn’t consider himself worthy enough to be in Gryffindor. There’s Angelina telling Oliver, that they are “just playing Hufflepuff” in book 3. There’s Ron making fun of Hufflepuff in book 4. There are the twins and Harry dismissing Cedric as a stupid boy, because he’s in Hufflepuff.
Yes, there was definitely mention of Hufflepuff being considered less intelligent and what not in the books. ^ Everything mentioned above are good examples of that. I guess I’m just curious as to how that assumption got started and if it was like that during Newt’s time at Hogwarts. Would be interesting to get some insight from a Hufflepuff alumni. 🙂
Lovely title 🙂
I’d like to upvote your nym, but unfortunately Disqus doesn’t seem to have such an option …
I wonder whether the “superstition” about not having a thirteenth floor will turn out to be actually based upon MACUSA taking all those floors for their own use and hiding them from the Muggles…sorry, I mean “No-Majes” 😉
In other words, will it turn out that the MACUSA HQ is on the massively-expanded thirteenth floor of the Woolworth Building?
I LOVE this! I really hope that’s the case! What a fantastic idea!
Regarding the American wizarding school (singular):
The US has five times the population of the UK (c300 million to c60 million), and Hogwarts has a normal student population of c600 (as per Rowling, revised downwards from 1,000 and plausible if one assumes Harry’s class to be smaller than normal due to the war). Assuming that the magical population of the US is the same proportion of the Muggle population as is the case in the UK, then there are going to be around 3,000 magical schoolchildren in the US. That seems a lot for just one school. And even with Floo networks and Portkeys, large geographical distances are a problem even for wizards, so realistically, you would expect several schools scattered throughout the country.
On the other hand, Rowling by her own admission sucks at maths, so maybe there is only one school, unrealistic as this might be.
And on the other, other hand, it’s noticeable in the books that when witches and wizards are confronted with a logistical problem, they tend to just add an ad hoc patch with magic, rather than to reorganise things more efficiently. A single magical school would have been sufficient (just about) when the US was just a handful of newly independent states scattered along the eastern seaboard, but less so as the population grew and the country expanded westwards. But it would be perfectly in character, culturally speaking, for witches and wizards to react to the problem by coming up with new and bizarre ways to expand the existing school and to arrange transportation to it, rather than to rationalise their educational system to make it more convenient.
So maybe a single American wizarding school is realistic (in universe) after all. Hmm.
Haha! This made me chuckle. Yes, witches and wizards are sometimes really not logical at all.