There aren't a lot of surprises in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore. Even the long-awaited acknowledgement that Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law), the future Hogwarts headmaster, once had a gay schoolboy affair with future fascist Gellert Grindelwald (Mads Mikkelsen now stepping in for the departed Johnny Depp) is hardly unexpected. Potterworld creator J.K. Rowling already gay-conned Dumbledore for an approving book-tour audience back in 2007. ("I would have told you earlier if I knew it would make you so happy," she said.)
So the gay thing isn't much of a secret (although it will be in China, where the government demanded and received cuts of that plot point). What this third Fantastic Beasts movie does have, once again, is an overabundance of both characters and plot. Loyal fans will already be familiar with Dumbledore and Newt Scamander—the magical-creatures keeper played by Eddie Redmayne—and maybe Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler), the lovable Muggle baker who has blundered into Rowling's wild world of wizards and witches. But how many casual viewers, four years after the last Fantastic Beasts film, will clearly remember Jacob's love jones for half-blood sorceress Queenie Goldstein (Alison Sudol); or Queenie's sister Tina (Katherine Waterston), for whom Newt pines; or maybe the meaning of the term Obscurus (think Credence Barebone—played by Ezra Miller again, the darkly troubled young wizard who is actually, as we learn here, an unloved member of a prominent magical family).
