J.K. Rowling Talks Writing for Dumbledore Again in “Crimes of Grindelwald”

The wizarding world of Harry Potter is vast, and it continues to awe and amaze fans that J.K. Rowling has it all mapped out in her head, every detail about every character, time, place, object, and more. Occasionally, we wish to live inside that mind of hers. Perhaps, just for a day. When J.K. Rowling sat down to write a sequel, or perhaps a trilogy, she ended up mapping out five Fantastic Beasts films. Oops. We’re okay with that – more magic for us!

The second installment of Fantastic Beasts is much different from the first. Yes, we know it gets significantly darker and more complex. What matters more is that we get to go back to Hogwarts. We see characters we know and love grace the big screen once more. There isn’t a character any fan is more excited to see than Dumbledore.

It is no secret that Albus Dumbledore is J.K. Rowling’s favorite character. She dreamed of him long after she finished writing the Potter series, and it should be no surprise that he was one of the first familiar characters she brought back to life. (Dumbledore conveniently happens to fit within the timeline and plot of this new series. For a film that was originally just going to be a documentary about Newt until J.K. Rowling got wind of it and wanted to write the screenplay, we can theorize that writing these films has really been about writing for Dumbledore again all along…)

J.K. Rowling, infamous for rare interviews, answered a few brief questions for Entertainment Weekly. After giving a bit of a history lesson on Potter canon and Grindelwald, she talked about what it was like to write for Dumbledore again:

It is no secret that Dumbledore is my favorite character in the Potter stories, so it was an absolute joy to have an opportunity to write dialogue for him again. He’s a fascinating character on so many levels.

As for meeting other familiar characters from the Potter world in the future, we’ll just have to wait and see how the writing plays out.

It’s always possible that some details will change along the way, but the arc of the story is there. It’s been an amazing opportunity to tell parts of the backstory that never made it into the original books. I’m thinking particularly of one character that I think fans will be surprised to meet in this movie.

In terms of meeting exciting characters for this film, we assume she means Nagini – a character reveal that probably occurred after this interview was given.

Jo would not reveal what new cities the next three Fantastic Beasts films would be visiting, but she did say that she was excited about moving beyond the scope of Europe and North America. With German, either Portuguese or Spanish, and Italian being the languages spoken in the cities featured in upcoming movies, South America seems like the most likely candidate.

Where would you like to see the wizarding world go next? What other familiar Potter characters do you wish Jo would bring back? Let us know in the comments.