Pottermore Spends SDCC with the “Fantastic Beasts” Cast

With a new trailer and lots of fun tidbits from the cast, there was a lot to get excited about when the cast of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them appeared at San Diego Comic-Con last weekend. Pottermore got a chance to spend even more time with actors Eddie Redmayne, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, and Katherine Waterston than the rest of us – here are some highlights!

All four actors were excited and overwhelmed about the attention they were receiving at the convention, but Dan Fogler may have the best SDCC story of them all:

Oh man, it’s surreal. Last year, I was dragging my comics around, and that’s really why I was here – to try and hawk my comics. I was in the audition process for this movie. So when they called me and told me I had the part, I was totally unprepared…I was on the floor, in the throng of it, working my way up stream with all my books, I was just sweating…My agent said, ‘Hey, you know, next year’s going to be a lot different.’ I was just all tears, like I’d got the Golden Ticket. And now, here we are!

Besides Fogler, none of the cast had been to SDCC before. Eddie Redmayne had some thoughts about the experience:

I feel like what’s extraordinary about Comic-Con is that so much energy comes into the city for four days, and you feed off that. So your adrenaline is pumping and pulsating through your body, and you kind of feel elated. Slightly like you’re floating on a different planet. You almost can’t take it in; it’s too much visual stimulus. You see people everywhere dressed in costume – I saw a guy dressed as Newt Scamander. I was like, ‘I love it!’ And there’s this Funko toy… That’s kind of amazing, although I think I’m going to take mine home and put freckles on it.

Meanwhile, Katherine Waterston has had her first taste of what it means to be the object of Potter fan adoration, and it’s a lot to get used to:

Just think of one Harry Potter fan you know, and then consider that we’re in a room with thousands. I’ve had conversations where someone is shaking and sweating because they know I’m in Fantastic Beasts. So I keep thinking of those people I know who love it so much, when I’m looking at this sea of smiling faces.

You can read Pottermore’s full interview with the cast here. Pottermore also shadowed the cast during the day, so if you’re interested in what the schedule of a movie star at SDCC is, you can check out that report here.

Jessica J.

I've been making magic at MuggleNet since 2012, when I first joined the staff as a News intern. I've never wavered from the declaration in my childhood journal, circa October 2000: "I LOVE Harry Potter! If I clean my room, my mom says she'll make me a dinner a wizard would love!" Proud Gryffindor; don't hate.