Released in 2018, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is the second installment in the five-film Fantastic Beasts series, directed by David Yates and written by J.K. Rowling. Picking up just months after the first film, it shifts focus from magical creature adventures to the rise of one of the wizarding world’s most dangerous dark wizards: Gellert Grindelwald.
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald – A Deep Dive into the Wizarding World’s Darkest Chapter crimes of grindelwald
The film opens with Grindelwald (now played by Mads Mikkelsen in later films, but by Johnny Depp in this entry) orchestrating a dramatic escape from MACUSA (Magical Congress of the USA) custody. His goal: to recruit pure-blood wizards to his cause — wizarding supremacy over Muggles (or "No-Majs"). Released in 2018, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of
Meanwhile, a young Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) at Hogwarts asks his former student, Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), to track down Credence Barebone (Ezra Miller) — an obscurial whose power Grindelwald seeks to weaponize. The trail leads from London to Paris, where a climactic rally at Père Lachaise Cemetery reveals Grindelwald’s charismatic evil and sets the stage for the series’ central conflict. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald – A
The Crimes of Grindelwald is best viewed as a — less a self-contained story and more a setup for the remaining three movies. It suffers from trying to do too much at once: dark political thriller, creature adventure, family drama, and mystery box all in one. However, for fans invested in Dumbledore’s backstory, the rise of dark ideologies, and deeper wizarding lore, it offers rich material — even if the execution is messy.