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Wizard’s Council: On the Fantastic Beasts in the Potterverse

By W&W Staff

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Our Wizard’s Council convenes this week to consider the question of the hour: Which fantastic beasts are your favorite? Will they show up in the film?

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Welcome to the Wizard’s Council. Back in olden days, before the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy in 1692, the Wizarding world was governed by the Wizard’s Council. This was the longest serving ruling body over the Wizarding World in history, and though it was disbanded in 1707 with the founding of the Ministry of Magic, it was still considering one of the wisest and august bodies to ever rule the UK and Irish Wizarding Worlds. (Sadly, the same cannot be said for the Ministry, which seems to only be as good as it’s current Minister.) Here at Wizards and Whatnot, we come together once again as this august body to think deeply on the issues of our time.

Philosophical Question of the Hour: Which fantastic beasts are your favorite? What do you think the chances are they will show up in the upcoming film?

DAN: Okay, I don’t think they technically qualify as “beasts” under the above definition, but I’m going to say “house-elves.” They’re fictional, they have funny ears, and they can make desserts float in midair. Sounds enough like a magical beast for me.

Also, I always thought that house-elves were among J.K. Rowling’s more inspired inventions, mainly because they’re so messed up. As Hermione would surely point out, they’re slaves (except for Dobby)—they work insane hours for no pay for their entire lives. And they love it. That’s the messed up part. There’s something audacious about creating a race of slave-beings who don’t just endure their servitude, but embrace it. Were the circumstances a little different, the existence of house-elves would be played as tragedy, and while Rowling toys with that angle, she mainly milks them for comedy. It’s all wonderfully weird.

If I have to pick a magical beast that’s more clearly a…y’know, a magical beast, I’d go with thestrals. Maybe it’s just because I’m not terribly familiar with mythology, but I’d never heard of this sort of creature before I read about it in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Centaurs, werewolves, phoenixes…Rowling did a good job with all of them, but I’d seen them elsewhere—thestrals seem to have emerged straight from her imagination.

Like house-elves, thestrals are intriguingly messed up. A reptilian horse that can only be seen by those who have watched someone die? That’s a potent idea, and fits the grimmer tone of the final few books in the series. As for whether either of these creatures will show up in Fantastic Beasts, I honestly have no idea. We don’t know a lot about either of them—do they even exist outside England? We’ll see later this year.

RYAN: Out of all the wonderful and/or deadly creatures in the Potterverse, one has always stood out to me. It is none other than the Sphinx. That’s right, the Sphinx whom we met in the third task in Goblet of Fire. There is no way you can deny this creature has the beast status.

Majestic, smart and yet violent. It is composed of the head of a woman and the body of a lion, and can fluently speak to humans. Too bad it’s a one way trip to Azkaban to own one though, for it would be a great guard for your personal belongings. A Sphinx is very protective of whatever it’s guarding, and will kill if needed. The combination of this and its love for puzzles, riddles and enigmas made it a perfect creature to be in the maze of the Triwizard Tournament. What makes me giggle is the fact that Gringotts has used it to guard some of the vaults, could you imagine the frustration of customers that are lousy at riddles? What’s not to love about this beast, even the Egyptians built a giant statue of one! It is one of the MANY creatures in the Potterverse that just sticks in my mind ever since I first read Goblet of Fire.

Fingers crossed that we get a good look of a Sphinx in Fantastic Beasts. We were robbed of seeing it in Goblet of Fire, then again we were robbed of a lot of things in the film adaptation of the fourth book. If we see a mere glimpse of one, I’ll be content. It’s most likely it will be in the form of a picture due to the setting of the film.

TARA: As an animal lover, this one is actually really hard for me to answer! My first thought was probably Kneazles because if they existed I would totally be like Mrs. Figg and have a whole slough of them, not just because they’re cat-like but also because I love the idea that they can detect suspicious and distrustful people.

That said, I grew up on a farm and had horses for a long time, and I always wanted a palomino. So the Abraxans – giant winged palomino horses – may have a slight edge over Kneazles. Plus they only drink single-malt whiskey, so really, that sounds like my kind of magical creature!

KELLY: Whether good or evil, hero or villain, one of the best things about the Potterverse is its many creatures. Dobby. Graup. Buckbeak. Fluffy. Aragog. Greyback. Dementors. Merpeople. Dragons. Griphook. Giants. Hippogriffs. Griffins. The list goes on and on…

Looking forward to Fantastic Beasts, we know we will see at least a couple creatures escape from Newt Scamander’s briefcase – but which ones? I’m hoping to see dragons, fairies, merpeople, griffons, and hippogriffs in particular. It would be pretty awesome to see a Hungarian Horntail flying around New York City. I would also love to see an ancestor of Dobby appear in Fantastic Beasts, stirring up trouble and helping Newt get the creatures back into his briefcase!

I completely agree with Ryan and would love to see a Sphinx as well, challenging Newt with a riddle. And who doesn’t love a phoenix?

I think what will make this film so great is the inclusion of so many different creatures. I’m really hoping we see some familiar beasts, but also new ones that Rowling has created herself. I’m also secretly hoping to see Colin Farrell turn into a werewolf.

KATIE: I had to hit up my own copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them to make an informed decision, and I landed on the Erkling—an elf-like creature whose laughter entrances children so that they’ll follow the sound to its source, and the Erkling can eat them. While the Ministry of Magic in Germany (the Erklings’ homeland) has reportedly reduced such killings, the last recorded attack was unsuccessful, anyway, as the would-be victim killed the Erkling by bashing it upside the head with a collapsible cauldron.

There are two things I especially like about the Erkling’s inclusion in the magical beast directory: One, the account of six-year-old Bruno Schmidt’s triumph over his attempted murderer is, simply put, the stuff of legends; and two, the Erkling’s description and history are great allusions to the creatures that lurk in traditional fairy tales. While I always appreciate Rowling’s original creations, I’m a sucker for adaptations and how elements of old stories can be molded to fit new ones.

I don’t expect to see these pseudo-cannibals on the big screen, though. There’s no real place for them within the plot of Fantastic Beasts, and they wouldn’t quite fit in with the New York setting, either. More likely we’ll see creatures like fairies, some brand of elf or gnome, and some of the big baddies that would ransack the city—something along the lines of a chimaera, griffin, or dragon. I certainly wouldn’t say no to a Jarvey, either, because an overgrown, talking ferret who speaks in short, rude insults can only mean great fun for the audience; everybody needs a wisecracking sidekick, after all, and the Jarvey would fit the bill nicely.

MARNIFER: Thestrals, hands down. These carnivorous winged horses are a testament to J.K.’s wondrous imagination. Of course I am predisposed to love Thestrals, as I am obsessed with skeleton and skull imagery, Day of the Dead aesthetics, and the mythology of Death with a capital D. It’s a frikkin’ skeleton Pegasus! And I love the dichotomy of a temperate creature being so feared and maligned. The Thestrals’ dark leathery skin and skeletal appearance belies their gentle nature – at least the Hogwarts herd, that is. But I like to think it’s a breed-wide trait. If Luna believes it, so do I.

Thestrals will probably pop up in Fantastic Beasts, but I wouldn’t expect them to be a main focus. I’ll be delighted to be proven wrong!

Next: Harry Potter and the Order of Archetypes: Hermione Granger, the Perfectionist

Our Wizard’s Council meets every other week, unless there is an emergency session. Check out our other entries here.

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