"Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald - The Original Screenplay" by J.K. Rowling

Warning: SPOILERS included. Unless you’ve already read the screenplay and/or seen the movie, bypass this post if you don’t want to know things before you’re ready.

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald – The Original Screenplay (Nov. 16, 2018) by J.K. Rowling.

For reasons not shared until much later, Albus Dumbledore will not go after Gellert Grindelwald, the latter of whom has escaped. He’s amassing followers and is determined to locate the Obscurial, who was presumed dead. On the contrary, Credence Barebone is alive and wants desperately to know who he really is. Albus enlists Newt Scamander in helping to locate Credence, who’s been spotted in France. Newt isn’t supposed to cross international borders, as he’s a wanted wizard, but thanks to those handy portkeys, travel is possible. His no-maj friend, Jacob Kowalski, ends up with him quite by accident. Well, Queenie Goldstein brought him, but as a Legilimens, she can read other people’s thoughts, and Jacob thought something that upset her, so she, essentially, abandoned him. Queenie has set off to look for her sister, Tina Goldstein, an American Auror, who’s been looking for Credence. So is Yusuf Kama, but why he’s looking for him is not the correct story. For that, they’ll want to hear from Leta Lestrange, whom Newt has cared deeply for, but who’s engaged to Newt’s brother, Theseus, who apparently has a tendency to want to kill him. (Theirs is a complicated relationship.) It all comes back around to Grindelwald. Why does he want the Obscurial? For what nefarious plans does Grindelwald have involving Credence? Can Newt and Tina get to him before Grindelwald?

            I hadn’t seen the movie before I read the screenplay. The great thing about reading the screenplay first is that I feel like I’ve gotten all the answers beforehand. Nothing will spring up on me on the movie screen; I’ll know what to expect. But the not-so-great thing is that it’s a screenplay and not a full-length novel. I would happily read scores of stories set in J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World that are a thousand pages long per book (at least), but instead we get a screenplay. It’s still enjoyable to read so we feel we are involved, but it’s like a tiny sampler appetizer: tasty, but without the benefit of truly tiding you over. Because of its format, it read very quickly. I still adore Newt’s magizoologist quirkiness. I hope we get to see more from Dumbledore in subsequent screenplays/movies. And I’d like to add a zouwu to my list of pets in my imaginary menagerie of Creatures That Don’t Exist. A baby niffler, too, while I’m at it. *Cheshire grin*