Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’s Deleted Ending Scene

Warning: MAJOR spoilers for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Ahead

When J.K. Rowling first announced that Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them would span five movies, everyone was surprised, but Rowling herself assured fans that when we understood the story she was trying to tell, we would understand. Now that the movie is released, it becomes apparent that while Newt Scamader might be billed as the main character, Fantastic Beasts is actually far more focused on Grindelwald’s rise to power, and his attempts to use an obscurus to gain power and cause war between Wizards and No-Maj’s.

Apart from the reveal of Grindelwald masquerading as Percival Graves, another twist in the movie concerns Credence Barebone, played by Ezra Miller. While it looks as though the obscurus might be inhabiting the body of Credence’s younger sister, Modesty, it is in fact Credence who is possessed and, angered at his treatment at the hands of Graves/ Grindelwald, he starts to destroy New York before Newt, Tina and Graves manage to corner him in the subway. The President of MACUSA orders that the obscurus is destroyed, killing Credence in the process. Eagle-eyed viewers, however, will have noticed that a small ‘piece’ of either Credence or the obscurus, can be seen floating away, and it’s led to questions over whether Credence could return.

Talking to Cinemablend, director David Heyman has revealed that indeed, we haven’t seen the last of Credence and in fact, a scene showing him alive and well at the end of the movie, was cut, as it made it all too obvious:

“We actually had a scene, which we cut, which was Credence going to a boat, to get on a boat somewhere else. But we cut that, because we didn’t want to have it be such an, ‘Ahhh, here we go.'”

Heyman adds that the final scene was of Credence boarding a boat out of New York City, which was “maybe a boat with Newt, maybe not.” So could it be that we will see Credence in Paris for the second Fantastic Beasts installment? Well, certainly Grindelwald is out to use Credence to further his evil work, and we know that the dark wizard terrorizes much of Europe, so it seems highly likely that that’s where Credence will end up. The fact that this (presumably) means Miller will return is fantastic news, since his role was one of the highlights of a really great movie. Of course, Miller himself is a huge Harry Potter fan too, so no doubt he’s happy to be sticking around.

Another question many people have had, is whether subsequent Fantastic Beasts movies will keep Eddie Redmayne’s character in a central role. With the focus seeming to shift towards the conflict between Dumbledore and Grindelwald, as well as the latter’s obsession of becoming an overruling dark force, it’s hard to see how or where Newt will fit into all of it. While understandably vague about what’s to come, Heyman did confirm that though we can expect Newt (along with Tina, Jacob and Queenie) to appear in the next movie, the magizoologist won’t necessarily be at the heart of the action.

“I don’t think [Newt will be at] the heart of all of them. I think he’ll be part — so will Tina, Queenie and Jacob — will be part of the next one.”

Heyman went on to add that he thinks Dumbledore and Credence will be the “main players” in the next film, and Rowling herself has previously confirmed that they are currently recasting for Dumbledore. Fantastic Beasts is set in 1926, with the infamous duel between Grindelwald and Dumbledore not happening until 1945, so it looks as though Rowling was right when she promised fans there was a wider story arc to come.

KEY RELEASE DATES
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 2 release date: Nov 16, 2018