What happens in the ending of Fantastic Beasts 3? The new Harry Potter movie, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore has just been released and it poses many questions for fans of the wizarding world. If you’ve seen Fantastic Beasts 3, you may be needing some answers. Well, you may as well call us the Room of Requirement, because we have everything you seek.
Fantastic Beasts 3 is the seventh Harry Potter movie to be directed by David Yates. The fantasy movie stars Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander, Jude Law as a young Albus Dumbledore, and Mads Mikkelsen as the Harry Potter villain Gellert Grindelwald. Joining them is Dan Fogler, Ezra Miller, and Callum Turner, among others.
Fair warning, there will be plenty of spoilers ahead, so if you haven’t seen Fantastic Beasts 3 yet, now would be a good time to stop reading. So, what goes down in the battle between Dumbledore and Grindelwald? Why does Jacob Kowalski have a wand? And do we finally get some answers about Credence’s links to the Dumbledore family tree?
Does Dumbledore defeat Grindelwald?
In short, the answer is no. Essentially, Dumbledore wins the battle this time, but the war against Grindelwald wages on, with the nefarious wizard escaping at the end of Fantastic Beasts 3. But how does this all play out?
Well, you may recall the blood pact between Dumbledore and Grindelwald, which prevents either of them from drawing their wand against the other. The blood pact is so strong, in fact, that if Dumbledore even thinks about harming Grindelwald, the pendant within which the pact is contained, would strangle the life out of him.
But, as the adventure movie comes to a close, the two lovers-turned-enemies come face to face once again, and this time, inaction isn’t an option for Dumbledore. With his plan to gain political power thwarted, and seeing Credence turn against him, Grindelwald draws his wand against the young wizard.
Now, here’s where the clever little loophole of the blood pact comes into play. Credence is actually part of the Dumbledore bloodline, and Grindelwald has attacked that bloodline with the intention to kill, so when Dumbledore uses a spell to protect his bloodline, the pact is broken. The magic of Grindelwald, and Dumbledore, has essentially cancelled each other out and rendered the pact redundant.
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So, while Grindelwald does manage to flee the scene of the battle, he will now be hunted by Dumbledore and the other wizards, and the next time they meet, Dumbledore can actually attack him. With this in mind, the next time they meet, could be the last time we see Grindelwald.
Why does Jacob Kowalski have a wand?
Fans of Harry Potter were divided when, in the trailer, it appears that Jacob Kowalski is given a wand. The vast lore of the wizarding world tells us that muggles should not have wands, and a lot of the fanbase were in uproar at the thought of this rule being broken.
Well, this is a prime example of why we shouldn’t trust trailers, and should wait for the actual movie before we get angry about things. It turns out, the wand Kowalski is given, is actually a fake.
It’s all part of Dumbeldore’s elaborate plan to confuse Grindelwald. You see, Grindelwald can look into the future, meaning that he can see any plan the team of heroes are going to carry out. But if they all have different plans, Grindelwald won’t be able to work out what the real threat is.
Kowalski is given a decoy wand, and is essentially framed as an assassin, when it appears as though he has used magic to try and kill Grindelwald. The truth is, he didn’t use magic at all, but as long as everyone believes that, then Grindelwald’s path to power can open up as they get behind his war on the muggles.
But why would Dumbledore want Grindelwald’s plot for dominance of the Wizarding World to gain traction? Well, things need to play out that way, so that Grindelwald will end up exactly where Dumbledore wants him – out in the open, revealed to be the fraud that he is.
Is Credence Barebone actually a Dumbledore?
One of the biggest questions to come from the Fantastic Beasts series so far, is the uncertainty over Credence Barebone’s family tree. In Fantastic Beasts 2, Grindelwald tells Credence that he is actually a Dumbledore and that he was abandoned by his family.
Of course, this could all have been a lie told by Grindelwald to further radicalise the young wizard. Well, that is pretty much correct. The truth is, Credence is indeed a Dumbledore. But he wasn’t abandoned, and his family very much loved him.
Credence is not an orphan at all. He is actually called Aurelius Dumbledore and he is the son of Aberforth Dumbledore. Grindelwald worked out Credence’s links to the Dumbledore family, in the fact that he was surviving the effects of the Obscurus for so long because he must be from a very powerful wizarding family.
Grindelwald used this information against Credence, and the young wizard continued on his path of self-destruction, with the Obscurus slowly killing him. But he was never abandoned, he was actually taken from his family as a baby, by Leta Lestrange, and Aberforth has been longing for his son to return ever since.
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The finale of Fantastic Beasts 3 sees Aurelius and Aberforth reunited, but not before Grindelwald nearly kills Aurelius right in front of the whole wizarding world. Luckily, Albus Dumbledore saves his nephew, and Aurelius is seemingly free of the Obscurus parasite, too. We will have to wait for Fantastic Beasts 4 to see how this plays out.
Fantastic Beasts 3 is in cinemas in the UK on April 8, and US cinemas on April 15.