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What Was Newt Doing in New York?

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We know filming officially began this week, and with it a whole slew of new information about Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them will start pouring in. We got our first tidbit in the official announcement, which was picked up by the fan page Fantastic Beasts Movies:

fantastic beasts book signing

So what was Newt doing in New York between 1924 and 1926 if he wasn’t finding and researching magical creatures?

There are a few possibilities that we wonder about:

  1. Was he trying to sell his new book to a wizarding publisher in America? Did he think it would be easier than it turned out (hence he thought his stay would only last a few hours)?
  2. There was a heatwave in New York in 1925 – was this evidence of dragon activity? Was Newt conscripted into helping with a dragon disaster as a preeminent expert?
  3. Was Newt fleeing from Europe because of Grindelwald’s growing power?
  4. Was there a person in America interested in importing Newt’s mother’s hippogriffs? Was he there on business?
  5. Had he met Tina before and wanted to reunite with her?
  6. Was he on vacation after having written his first book?
  7. Was he literally following his travels to New York (i.e., chasing dragons across the Atlantic)?

Do you have any ideas? Let us know in the comments!