If you are planning to watch the Fantastic Beasts series and wondering if it is connected to the Harry Potter franchise you are in the correct place. Here, you would get all your answer.
Fantastic Beasts is supposed to make in five movies and till now in 2022 we have got its 3 movies including Fantastic Beasts: Where to find them, Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindelwald, and Fantastic Beasts: Secret of Dumbledore.
Is Fantastic Beast Connected to Harry Potter?
Fantastic Beast has a huge connection with Harry Potter movies or books. In fact, it is the spin-off prequel to Harry Potter. The Fantastic Beasts movies are a series of events that are set up 70 years prior to the Harry Potter movies.
The Harry Potter movies commence in the early 90s whereas the Fantastic Beasts is set up in the 1930s when the Secret of Dumbledore‘s plot is revealed.
Thus these two movie franchise is connected in so many ways. How? Let us unveil them in the topics below.
How is Fantastic Beast connected to Harry Potter?
We already know that the movies of Fantastic Beasts are the prequel to the films in Harry Potter series. Although events in Fantastic Beast occurred a long time before Harry Potter’s timeline, still it has many things that connect both of these films. You can find some of the major connections listed below.
J.K. Rowling
The major connection between Harry Potter and Fantastic Beast is, of course, J.K. Rowling. She has written both the books of Harry Potter and has also been an integral part of the Harry Potter movie series.
In a similar way, the Fantastic Beast is the spin-off prequel based on her Harry Potter book where she has mentioned about fictional character Newt Scammer and his book Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Them. This spin-off is also screen played by her. Thus Rowling is the major person that brought amazing wizarding series to us.
Wizarding world
The wizarding world is the main connection between the Harry Potter movies and the Fantastic Beast movies Both the movies have a lot set up in the wizarding plot. It consists of Wizards and Witches learning magic at Hogwarts.
Moreover, the villains of both movies wanted to establish the pureblood line in the wizarding world and also want to rule over the muggle world.
Hogwarts and the Houses
Both Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and its different houses are shown in both the film series. The houses are similar consisting of Griffindor, Hufflepuff, Slytherin, and Ravenclaw.
In Harry Potter films Harry was at the Gryffindor House along with his best friends Ron and Hermione. Similarly in the Fantastic Beasts, Newt Scamander belonged to the Hufflepuff house. Newt was fond of saving the magical creatures.
Dumbledore as a Hogwarts Professor
The main connecting link between both the films was none other than our favorite professor Albus Dumbledore. He was the young professor at Hogwarts during the timeline of Fantastic Beast, whereas in the Harry Potter series he is shown as an old headmaster of Hogwarts.
Professor is shown to be aiding young Harry to defeat Voldemort in the latter timeline of the Harry Potter films. Similarly in Fantastic Beast, he is seen to be taking help from Newt to defeat Gellert Grindelwald. In both, the case Dumbledore played an essential role in defeating both villains.
The duel between Dumbledore and Grindelwald
If you are aware of the Deathly Hallows, you must also know at one interval of time both friends, Dumbledore and Grindelwald were obsessed to find the three Deathly Hallows. However, things didn’t go well between them as Grindelwald didn’t show up with the right intention. Thus this resulted in a historic duel between them.
There was mention of this duel in the Harry Potter movie. You don’t have to go far to find out about its mention, it was in the first book/movie Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. While Harry and Ron were traveling on Hogwarts Express there was a mention in their chocolate frog card “Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the Dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945”
Thus this duel which was mentioned in Harry Potter’s first book/movie was portrayed in the Fantastic Beasts. Not only the duel, the movie portrayed about the intention of Grindelwald and his terror in the wizarding world.
Newt Scamander’s book
Remember the book list that was provided to Harry in the first year, it also included the book written by Newt Scamander which was named “Fantastic Beast and where to find them.”
Well, Newt was shown to be writing a book edition for younger readers at the Fantastic Beast and which was shown to be one of the curricula for the first-year student in the latter timeline in the Harry Potter series.
Newt was so concerned about the research of creatures and their safety no wonder he wrote a book for them that was studied by students at Hogwarts.
Lestrange related to Bellatrix and Lida
Professor McGonagall
How can we forget Professor McGonagall in Harry Potter? She was an essential character in the Harry Potter Franchise. She had been a transfiguration professor to students of Hogwarts. Also, she always had encourage Harry to be a better wizard.
She was also mentioned as a Professor McGonagall by Dumbledore in the Fantastic Beast: Crimes of Grindelwald series too in her twenties. Just like in the Harry Potter series she is a professor of Hogwarts here too.
However, the presence of Professor McGonagall is controversial as mentioned in many authentic sites she was born in 1935 and didn’t start teaching since 1956 and the Fantastic Beasts timeline is earlier than that.
The Ministry of Magic
The Ministry of magic is also a common connection in both the timeline of Harry Potter and Fantastic Beats.
In Harry Potter Franchise we saw the ministry taking the important decision of Askaban and also of Hogwarts. The Ministry had ignored to believe in the existence of Voldemort at first but finally in the end it had helped the Order against the Death Eaters.
Similarly, in the Fantastic Beasts, we witness the Ministries across various countries- the Magical Congress of the United States of America and so on. Well, they are against the Gellert since the beginning here.
The Daily Prophet
The Wizarding newspaper daily Prophet was seen in both of the timelines. In the Harry Potter series, we remember the moving pictures in the newspaper which was The Daily Prophet. It gave important pieces of news at that time like escaping Sirius Black from the prison of Askaban or various news and also rumors about Harry.
Well, the newspaper was present since the Fantastic Beasts timeline. We could see a glance of it many times in these movies too.
Magic Spells!
There were a series of magic spells used in the Harry Potters series and any Potter fan would easily recognize those magic spells. Various Magic spells were used and taught at Hogwarts. We also learn various spells during the wars too.
Hence we would obviously recognize the spells such as Obliviate, Lumos, and Alohomara being used in the Fantastic Beasts by Newt and other wizards and witches.
Memory charms
You must haven’t forgotten how Hermione used the Obliviate charms to erase the memories of her parents to keep them safe from Lord Voldemort and Death Eaters.
We could witness the same magic charms in the timeline of Newt too. The magic was used in erasing the periodic memories of muggles so that they could not remember the magic they witness. In the movie Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, even the memories of an entire city were erased with the help of one of Newt’s creatures.
Thus the magical spells are shown similarly in both franchises.
House Elves
We cannot deny the role of the house elf in the Harry Potter series. It was one of the hose elves, Dobby who had helped Harry many times and sacrificed his life in order to save Harry.
We would also see the roles of various house elves in the Fantastic Beasts too. We see them performing various household chores.
Nagini
Nagini who was seen as the pet of Voldemort was seen in the human form since Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindelwald. Here she was seen as a woman who could transform herself into a snake at her will. However, she had a blood curse that will permanently transform her into an alligator.
Thus in the Harry Potter timeline, we saw her in the form of Nagini who was completely transformed into an alligator. She was on the side of Voldemort and had brutally killed many of Voldemort’s opponents including Snape.
Phoenix
There was a presence of Phoniex too in both of the films. Many times in the Harry Potter series we have seen the Phoenix either it is healing Harry’s wounds with its tears or helping Dumbledore to disappear. The Phoenix is regarded as very sacred all the time and is considered to have disappeared forever after Dumbledore died.
In the Fantastic Beasts too, there was a mention by Dumbledore that Phoniex had appeared in their family clan when in need. Thus, it had vowed to protect Dumbledores. It appeared to Credence, conforming he belonged to Dumbledore’s family
The Phoenix also signaled to elder Dumbledore that Credence needed help and also signaled that he was dying.
Deathly Hallows
There is a huge story of Deathly Hallows in Harry Potter’s timeline. Harry had somehow possessed all the hallows, and in the same movies, it was revealed that Dumbledore and Grindelwald were in the search of the hallows to attain the mastery of Death. However, they got apart due to different intentions possessed by both of them.
It was the same Harry Potter timeline that disclosed that Grindelwald was able to possess the Elder Wand which he lost in the duel with Dumbledore.
The Fantastic Beasts movies focused on the journey of Grindelwald to find the Hallows and the war between him and Dumbledore which the Harry Potter timeline had only mentioned.
Elder wand
The fact Grindelwald steals the Elder Wand from wand maker Gregorovitch sometime between 1900 and 1926 from the Harry Potter timeline. Further, the Fantastic movies show the chaos created by Grindelwald in the wizarding world which also had a worse impact on the muggle world too.
He had the intention to establish a pure-blood wizards’ world and exclude muggles from wizardry. He also wanted to rule over the muggle world. His intention was opposed by many wizards in the wizarding world including Dumbledore.
Not to forget the duo (Dumbledore and Grindelwald) had made a blood oath not to fight with each other. Well unlike the unbreakable vows this oath must be breakable that the duo fight with each other at the end. Gellert was difficult to defeat as he had Elder Wand yet Dumbledore won the duel and he became the master of Elder Wand.
Did Newt Scammer appear in the Harry Potter movie?
We have already mentioned that his book was being studied by first-year Hogwarts students. Now, to be honest his personified character was not shown in the movie but there was a small clue about his existence in the Harry Potter series.
Give a little force to your mind and try to remember the Marauder’s Map. It was given by Fred and George Weasely to Harry during the Harry Potter and Prisoner of Askaban. They had stated that the map would show anyone in Hogwarts and any interval of time.
So, when Harry opened the map for the first time there was the name of Newt Scammer. So in 1993, he has probably been working at Hogwarts.
