Could the Sorcerer’s Stone Be the Key to Defeating Grindelwald?

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them had more than a few visual allusions to the Harry Potter films. Character-wise, our impending reacquaintance with Albus Dumbledore in its upcoming sequel presents us with another thread tying the two series to each other. These similarities had me wondering whether more characters from the Harry Potter series may grace the silver screen at some point during the Fantastic Beasts pentalogy. More specifically, I have a supposition involving one of the least-explored characters in the Harry Potter series, Nicolas Flamel.

This would not be the first time that an overlooked element from the wizarding world played a prominent role in the Fantastic Beasts film series. Fifteen years prior to the first film, J.K. Rowling introduced the term “Obscurus,” which was the name of the publisher that released Newt Scamander’s compendium of magical creatures. Rowling may have, however, left a much earlier hint regarding the plot of the Fantastic Beasts films. On Dumbledore’s Chocolate Frog card in Sorcerer’s Stone, his defeat of Grindelwald and his friendship with Nicolas Flamel are mentioned in the same sentence. Throughout the series, we learn practically nothing about Flamel. Apart from Sorcerer’s Stone, Nicolas Flamel isn’t mentioned again until Deathly Hallows, during which he is referred to twice.

Although Nicolas Flamel is less than a secondary character in the Harry Potter series, I think that it would be plausible to theorize that he’ll have an important role to play in the Fantastic Beasts films. We learn in Sorcerer’s Stone that Flamel “is the only known maker of the Sorcerer’s Stone” (SS 13) and that Dumbledore assisted him with “his work on alchemy” (SS 6). The Sorcerer’s Stone could resolve the conundrum of how Dumbledore defeated Grindelwald if the latter was the master of the Elder Wand. Dumbledore using the Sorcerer’s Stone to nullify the effect of Grindelwald’s Elder Wand would not be out of place thematically in the Potterverse. Harry did not defeat Voldemort by being the aggressor, and similarly, I do not believe that Dumbledore took an offensive approach to defeat Grindelwald. Could the Elixir of Life, brewed using the Sorcerer’s Stone, be the key to defeating Grindelwald?

The Elder Wand’s allegiance is fickle and does not make its owner invulnerable. Antioch Peverell forfeited ownership of it because he was in a drunken state, Egbert the Egregious slaughtered Emeric the Evil, and Harry forcibly disarmed Draco of his hawthorn wand at Malfoy Manor. According to Xenophilius Lovegood, “The bloody trail of the Elder Wand is splattered across the pages of wizarding history” (DH 21). However, Dumbledore’s defeat of Grindelwald does not strike me as being bloody or violent. Rita Skeeter implies in “Dumbledore – The Truth at Last” (DH 2) that Grindelwald surrendered rather than being defeated. Although Rita is far from a reliable source, it’s plausible that Dumbledore was not compelled to kill or at least greatly maim Grindelwald due to his past feelings for him.

Could Nicolas Flamel make an appearance in the Fantastic Beasts films? Could Dumbledore have utilized the Sorcerer’s Stone to defeat Grindelwald? If not, how do you think he defeated Grindelwald? Please leave your comments below!