Author: Chris Thilk / Source: The Hollywood Reporter
The Wizarding World established in print by J.K. Rowling and then on film by Warner Bros. keeps expanding with this week’s Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. The movie, the second in the Fantastic Beasts series set decades before Harry Potter enrolled at Hogwarts, picks up with Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) being enlisted by Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) to find the recently-escaped magical criminal Gellert Grindelwald (Johnny Depp).
The film is projected to open to $65 million-plus in its debut. That would be among the lower opening weekends in the Harry Potter series dating back to 2001, at least stateside. Warner Bros. mounted a campaign that has sought to not only connect directly with fans but to make sure those fans understand this movie is directly tied to the Harry Potter series they love.
The Posters
Newt stands facing the camera while Dumbledore is at his back on the first poster, released in March, giving the audience what they want, which is a look at Law in character. There’s no copy other than the title, just a flash of lightning in the background adding a sense of dread, or at least trying to.
At San Diego Comic-Con two posters were released. One looks like a book cover, with some characters inside a frame and others placed in the circles in each corner while the rest of the frame is filled with illustrations of locations or creatures presumably important to the story. Another just uses a photo of the whole cast inside a symbol, with copy asking “Who will change the future?”
A series of posters featured each one of the main characters in close-up, with a brief description of what their situation is as the story picks up.
Another shows Grindelwald walking toward the Eiffel Tower. Another series paired up different characters, each one reminding the audience that the story deals with “The fate of one. The future of all.” A variation on some earlier art came next, with Newt at the center of the action and the supporting characters arranged around him.Newt and Albus are both shown on the Dolby exclusive poster, with copy between them asking “Who will change the future,” which attempts to lay out the stakes of the story. The IMAX one-sheet features drawings of the characters. Both those were released in the last couple weeks before the movie hit theaters.
The final theatrical poster has the three main players — Newt, Dumbledore and Grindelwald — at the top while the rest of the characters are at the bottom, everyone with wands at the ready and with the international locations the action takes place in seen in the background.
The Trailers
Dumbledore is being questioned as the first trailer (19.5 million views on YouTube) from March opens, specifically about where Newt is and whether or not he’s in Paris under Albus’ orders. He denies that, but it’s shown they’re in cahoots in some manner. There are fantastic creatures, returning characters and more in the middle of the trailer as we get a sense of the look and feel of the movie. Dumbledore is back then, explaining that while he can’t move against Grindelwald, Newt can.
A second trailer (10 million views on YouTube) debuted at Comic-Con in July along with the appearance by cast and crew. The focus here is on the dynamic between Dumbledore and Newt as the former recruits the latter into the fight against Grindelwald, who is out to rule the wizarding rule and bring the muggles to their knees. There’s lots of dramatic music and shots of magical creatures roaming about.
The final trailer (11 million views on YouTube) came about at the end of September and offers more of the plot, explaining a bit more clearly what Grindelwald has in…
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