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Eddie Redmayne Faces the Dark Arts in ‘Fantastic Beasts’ Sequel Footage

Warner Bros. released new footage Tuesday for “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” with a teenage Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) receiving Defense Against the Dark Arts instruction at Hogwarts.

The footage generated a big laugh among attendees at the CinemaCon convention of theater owners in Las Vegas, with Jude Law portraying a young Albus Dumbledore as the bumbling Scamander faces a Boggart (a malevolent, shapeshifting spirit) and a desk appears. Dumbledore explains that it’s manifested as Scamander’s fear: having to work an office job.

“This film, I get to go to Hogwarts, which is the best thing!” Redmayne proclaimed at the convention.

The David Yates film follows Dumbledore and Scamander as they join forces to recapture an escaped Gellert Grindelwald, played by Johnny Depp, who is on a mission to dominate all non-magical people with the help of his pureblood wizard followers. Depp did not appear at the CinemaCon event.

Ezra Miller, who plays Credence Barebone, impressed the audience by answering half a dozen “Fantastic Beasts” trivia questions from MC Will Arnett, including one about Nicolas Flamel, believed to be the discoverer of the famous Philosopher’s Stone.

Katherine Waterston, Alison Sudol, and Dan Fogler all appeared in the footage, with Fogler providing comic relief again. In the clip, his Jacob Kowalski character tells Brontis Jodorowsky’s Flamel, “You don’t look a day over 375.”

The second film in the “Harry Potter” prequel franchise will be released on Nov. 16. Yates, who directed “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” and the final four “Potter” installments, is returning to helm the second film in the series from a script by “Harry Potter” creator J.K. Rowling. The spinoff franchise will consist of five films.

Rowling, David Heyman, Steve Kloves, and Lionel Wigram are producing. “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” set in the 1920s in New York City, was released in late 2016 and grossed $814 million worldwide. Warner Bros. has not yet revealed when the third, fourth, and fifth films will be released.

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