Back in 2016 the first main Harry Potter spin off project was released being Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. This meant that for the first time since the Deathly Hallows released, fans of the franchise had something new to look forward to experiencing.
This movie spawned 2 sequels in the years since its release, and has introduced us to a whole new aspect and time of the wizarding world which we did not get a chance to experience in the original franchise.
The series follows lead character Newt Scamander as well as the beasts he collects, as well as the threats which the world of wizards faced before Harry Potter was even alive.
Understanding the connection between the main franchise and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is actually not too complicated since it is essentially just a prequel series, however, there are more complex and nuanced connections between the series which you might not even notice when watching Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them the first time.
Because of this we have put this guide together to give you all the information about how these two franchises interweave with each other.
So, if you are just a fan of Harry Potter or perhaps just a fan of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, this guide will give you the information you need on how these two interact!
Oh, and if you’re unsure when Harry Potter takes place and how to connect it to Fantastic Beasts, have a quick read!
The Connection
The main connection between these two franchises is not too difficult to understand. The Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them franchise is a direct prequel to the main Harry Potter film and book franchise.
The first movie in the series takes place in the 1920s as well as other decades prior to when the main franchise began. If you have seen both sets of movies, then this connection is not too difficult to understand.
This is made even more clear when we meet younger versions of existing characters in the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them movies who will appear later in the Harry Potter series.
One of the clearest examples of this is the well known character of Albus Dumbledore who appears very notably in the first sequel in the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them franchise.
He of course appears later in his life in the Harry Potter series, so seeing such a beloved character at such an earlier point in his life is enjoyable for fans of the series who want more of an insight into how this character has changed over the years.
Another major difference between the main Harry Potter franchise and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is that most of the stories in Harry Potter take place in Hogwarts which is a school for teaching magic skills, but this is not the case for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
We get to learn more about life outside of school in the wizarding world in ways which we were not able to see in the main series. We get to learn more about Aurors, as well as how the Ministry of Magic works in greater detail.
We also learn a lot more about the character of Grindelwald being a dark wizard who has to be defeated by Dumbledore.
There are some characters that play a major role in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them who do not play as important of a role as someone like Dumbledore in the main franchise, however, they do end up getting referenced in some ways.
One of the most important examples of this is our main character Newt Scamander who is the author of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, not the movie itself, but the in universe textbook which the movie series is named after.
This book appears as a textbook in the main Harry Potter franchise, so getting to see details behind its author’s thoughts is a fun way to build up this beloved fictional world.
How many Fantastic Beasts books are there, you ask? Why don’t you take a peek and see for yourself?
So, while these are the main connections in the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them film series, there are more specific connections with specific characters we are going to cover for the rest of this guide.
The Dumbledores
In the second Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them movie we learn about Aberforth Dumbledore who is the younger brother of Albus Dumbledore.
We learn that he has a son with a woman from Godric’s Hollow, and this son ends up being Credence Barebone, an important character within the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them movies.
Credence’s original name is Aurelius Dumbledore. Since the Dumbledore brothers do not share a close connection, Aberforth Dumbledore never told his brother about his long lost child whose mother had taken him away.
However, this is a connection that Albus does connect when he finds that the ashes of Credence’s phoenix end up falling on his suit coat. We find that Aberforth reunites with his son after having a confrontation with Grindelwald.
The Lestranges
The Lestrange family name is one which is very noteworthy, mainly due to Bellatrix Lestrange being such a noteworthy character in the main Harry Potter franchise.
This is why the character Leta Lestrange stands out so much in the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them franchise. In spite of this, we do not know the direct relation between the two, especially since the family tree of the Lestrange family is hardly linear.
While we find out that Bellatrix was actually born into the Black family, notably related to Sirius Black, that she actually married into the Lestrange family with Rodolphus Lestrange. Rodolphus has an ancestor who is confusingly called Radolphus, with a slightly different spelling.
This character was the Minister for Magic between 1835 and 1841. In the second Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them movie we also meet Corvus Lestrange IV who was living in France but dying, and sends his daughter Leta and his son also named Corvus away from France.
There are plenty more twists in the Lestrange family tree, but the tenuous connection between Leta and Bellatrix is a fun one to explore.
Voldemort And Nagini
In the second Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them movie we meet Nagini, but not in the form we know her in the main franchise. She is a woman played by Claudia Kim and she is kept captive by the ringer master of Circus Arcanus.
She is able to leave this twisted relationship thanks to help from Credence and joins his quest to help him find his family.
We also learn throughout the movies that Nagini is also a Maledictus, this is a curse that will permanently transform her into a snake.
One thing about her character is that she does not appear in the third Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them movie, so we do not know about how she ends up being connected to Voldemort which is unfortunate. We also do not know much about her eventual transformation either.
Luna And Newt
Before Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them released, the only thing we knew about the name Newt Scamander was that he was the author of the titular Hogwarts textbook.
We end up seeing our main characters in the Harry Potter franchise purchasing the book from Flourish and Blotts and we do not hear much more than this. In spite of this, we do learn a little more about the Scamander surname in the Deathly Hallows.
This is when we hear about what happened to Luna Lovegood, an important character in the Harry Potter series, after the series concludes.
We hear that Luna ends up marrying a character called Rolf Scamander, who is the grandson of the main Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them character Newt.
This character Rolf actually ended up being a magizoologist himself and this is what led him to meet Luna and to fall in love. So, while this is a tenuous connection, Luna is now the great daughter in law of Newt and Tina Scamander.
Summary
Hopefully this guide has given you an idea of all the connections the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them movies have with the main Harry Potter franchise.
These are series that take place in the same magical universe, only with a time and setting difference, so this means that every detail of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is technically a canonical connection to Harry Potter.
This movie series was designed so that it is not required viewing to watch before the Harry Potter movies or to read the books.
You can enjoy watching these movies before or after the main series, and we recommend starting with the series that you are more personally invested in. Plus, Harry Potter’s reading level makes it very accessible to everyone!
There are more connections than we have pointed out here, so if you want to learn more about these connections, we recommend paying attention to noteworthy surnames in the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them movie as these may show up again in the main franchise.
One last thing, if you’re wondering what to read after Harry Potter, we have a wonderful guide on that!
I have been reading books for as long as I can remember, and have fallen deeply in love with more books than I can count!
With this site, I hope that you can find a novel to get you out of a reading slump, or to get you hooked on a series. So, pick up one of our recommendations today. I promise you that you won’t regret it!
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