The Rise of Grindelwald
Canon discussion / The Films / Theories

Digging for Gold in the CG Cast List

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That can't be a coincidence, can it? Oh that's right ... Mark Evans ...

Digging for Gold in the CG Cast List

Now that the trailer has come out and presented us with wonderful nuggets of canon and plenty of questions to chew over, I think it’s time to dig a little further for canon treasure in the cast list of the film. The complete list is published on IMDb, so I took my copy of the Lestrange family tree from the trailer and my knowledge of existing canon and started delving.

Bunty – This character is still a mystery to us. She’s played by Victoria Yeates, a 35-year-old British actress. Is she a bounty hunter? Connected to the Circus Arcanus? An Auror?

Torquil Travers – The Travers family is one of the so-called “Sacred Twenty-Eight” families which are considered to be the most pure of the Pure Bloods. He figures prominently in the CG trailer and seems to be very interested in what Newt Scamander is up to. He is accompanied by a large group of folks in Muggle clothing. Are they Aurors? Or possibly the Grindelwald version of the Death Eaters? His last name is the name of a Death Eater in Harry’s time.

Maledictus – We’ve talked a lot about this character already. I’m convinced that she is Nagini in pre-snake form.

Vinda Rosier – Her name is also associated with a Death Eater in Harry’s era, and the Rosier family is also one of the “Sacred Twenty-Eight.” She is seen in the trailer and production stills standing near Grindelwald, which suggests that she might be his personal companion.

Nicolas Flamel – Where does this famous alchemist figure into the story? He is French, having attended Beauxbatons back in the day — which for the near-immortal Flamel was the mid-1330s.

Mrs. Lestrange – Now that we have the Lestrange family tree, this character becomes very interesting indeed. We know of several people who would be called “Mrs. Lestrange,” including both Leta’s and Credence Barebone’s mothers, who were each married to Corvus Lestrange. If Mrs. Lestrange is one of those two women, she would be either Laurena Lestrange née Kama or Clarisse Lestrange née Tremblay. I suppose Mrs. Lestrange could also be the grandmother of Leta and Credence, Eglantine Lestrange, but it seems less likely that she would appear in the film. The actress playing Mrs. Lestrange, Sabine Crossen, was 33 years old at the time of filming, but since we know there will be flashbacks in the film, the age doesn’t give us more of a clue.

Circus Compare – The word “compare” in Italian means gaffer, a chief electrician on the movie set. Donna Preston could be playing one of the Circus Arcanus workers, although if it’s a magical circus, they won’t be using electricity.

Auror Chang – Well, we know he’s an Auror, which until the first FB film I would have assumed meant that he worked for the Ministry of Magic. However, we now know that the term “Auror” is also used by MACUSA, so we can’t draw conclusions aside from the fact that he’s ostensibly one of the good guys.

Yusef Kama – We see this person at the Circus performance in the trailer but we have no idea if he’s a wizard or a Muggle. Interestingly, his last name, Kama, is the same as that of Leta Lestrange’s mother, Laurena Kama. That can’t be a coincidence, can it? Oh that’s right … Mark Evans

Credence’s Aunt – Here we go again, another Lestrange comes into the picture. Credence has no aunts on the family tree, although he does have two possible Great Aunts: Josette Lestrange and M. Lestrange, if M is a woman. I’m more inclined to think it’s a sister of his mother, Clarisse Tremblay. The idea of a flashback of Credence’s past is becoming more and more intriguing.

Red-Haired Young Witch – Now why specify the color of the hair, unless maybe she’s playing Ariana Dumbledore in the flashback we know will be in the film showing Dumbledore and Grindelwald as teens.

Carrow – Oh dear, another Death Eater name. I’m assuming that this person is a relative of the disgusting Carrow siblings who tormented students at Hogwarts in the 1997-1998 school year.

Employee of the French Magical Department – It seems from this that the French equivalent of the Ministry of Magic is the Magical Department. This seems unusual, since the French government is similar to the British, with Ministries for everything from Culture and Labor to Sport. However, since the role is listed as “uncredited,” the actual name of the role isn’t specified in the official cast list. So this may be nothing at all.

 

So what did I miss? Are there connections and clues that have slipped past me?

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Notes

This post was created just after the release of the first trailer for Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald in March 2018. New bits and pieces of the story which come out might make this post outdated, and of course we'll know all in November.

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