Warner Bros. reveals three new Fantastic Beasts characters

Warner Bros. debuts official descriptions for many of the characters including Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. There are a few surprises.

Warner Bros. has turned up the heat on the marketing for Fantastic Beasts this week. The latest push: descriptions for all the principal players, and a few new people.

First, let’s look at the descriptions for the characters we already know.

"NEWT SCAMANDER (Eddie Redmayne)Newt Scamander is a Magizoologist who has been traveling the world to find and document magical creatures, hoping to educate the wizarding world about why they are important and need to be protected. In his travels, he has rescued a wide variety of beasts, great and small, which he keeps in a case that magically provides more than enough room for the menagerie he cares for and protects.Newt is an outsider, a bit awkward, and more comfortable with creatures than his fellow wizards and witches. Hailing from England, he was once a student at Hogwarts but was expelled for endangering human life with a beast. Yet there was one professor who fought for him, a certain Albus Dumbledore. No one could have imagined then that Newt would someday write one of Hogwarts’ most important textbooks: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them."

The production keeps brining up Dumbledore, so you know he’s going to turn up at some point.

Next, let’s look at the Goldstein sisters.

"TINA GOLDSTEIN (Katherine Waterston)Tina (short for Porpentina) Goldstein is a smart and determined witch who lives in New York and works for MACUSA (Magical Congress of the United States of America). She was once an Auror but was demoted to a menial desk job after overstepping her duties when her heart overruled her head and she used unauthorized magic. She wants desperately to regain her status as an investigator, which puts her directly in the path of a visiting wizard named Newt Scamander. Tina is very close to her younger sister and roommate, Queenie.QUEENIE GOLDSTEIN (Alison Sudol)Queenie Goldstein is Tina’s vivacious and slightly quirky younger sister, who is undeniably beautiful, but there is much more to her than meets the eye. Queenie works a menial desk job at MACUSA in the same department as Tina, but she doesn’t have her sister’s driving ambition to be an Auror. In fact, truth be told, the free-spirited Queenie would prefer not to work at all. Queenie has a good heart and would do anything for her sister. She is also a Legilimens, meaning she can read minds."

So Tina and Queenie both work and live together. Never were there more devoted sisters.

"JACOB KOWALSKI (Dan Fogler)Jacob Kowalski is a No-Maj (American for Muggle) who works in a cannery but dreams of becoming a baker, making fresh and delicious treats. Unable to secure a loan, Jacob seems resigned to his fate, but everything changes when he encounters Newt Scamander and is inadvertently swept up in the mayhem caused by Newt’s magical beasts. At first, Jacob thinks he must be imagining things, but soon realizes he is on an adventure beyond even his wildest dreams."

I have a feeling that Jacob may become the breakaway hit character from the movie. We’re all familiar with the wizarding world now, but if Fantastic Beasts were the first time Rowling introduced it, I can see him making a good main character—the ordinary guy who gets swept up in something new and mysterious.

"PERCIVAL GRAVES (Colin Farrell)Percival Graves is an Auror and the Director of Magical Security at MACUSA, making him one of its highest-ranking and most respected officials. When Graves discovers that Newt Scamander has made an unauthorized trip to New York with a case filled with forbidden magical creatures, he is very suspicious of his intentions and concerned about the potential to break the American wizarding world’s most important law: the Statute of Secrecy. Graves seems to demonstrate care and compassion to the young and particularly vulnerable Credence Barebone. But to what end?"

So do you think Graves has a mysterious secret? Out with it, movie!

"MARY LOU BAREBONE (Samantha Morton)Mary Lou Barebone is a No-Maj and the outspoken leader of the New Salem Philanthropic Society (NSPS), otherwise known as the Second Salemers. Bent on exterminating all magic, Mary Lou fiercely crusades against the wizards and witches she is convinced live among them. She enlists in the effort her adopted children, who all live in fear of her wrath."

The key word here is “children.” We know that Mary Lou Barebone has at least one kid—Credence—but now Warner Bros. has released info on her other kids.

Image: Warner Bros.

But let’s hit Credence first.

"CREDENCE BAREBONE (Ezra Miller)Credence Barebone, the adopted middle child of Mary Lou Barebone, appears withdrawn, extremely shy and far more vulnerable than his two sisters. Credence is defenseless against the abuse that comes in response to the slightest infraction of Mary Lou’s strict rules. But his loneliness also makes him susceptible to the manipulation of Percival Graves, who has taken a personal interest in Credence."

So is Graves Credence’s father? Uncle? Furrier? We’ll find out.

Now let’s look at the descriptions for Credence’s sisters, both of whom are also adopted.

"CHASTITY BAREBONE (Jenn Murray)Chastity Barebone is Mary Lou’s adopted eldest daughter, who dutifully follows her mother’s rules and helps in the cause of eradicating magic and those who practice it.MODESTY BAREBONE (Faith Wood-Blagrove)Modesty Barebone is Mary Lou’s youngest adopted daughter. A bit precocious, she manages to hide her disobedience from her strict mother, aware of what happens to her brother, Credence. Playing her favorite game of hopscotch, she chants anti-witchcraft rhymes. But out of sight of her mother and older sister, she rebelliously scatters the Second Salemers leaflets to the four winds."

Okay, first of all, how much fun is Rowling having with these names? Chastity and Modesty Barebone? They sound like characters is some demented nursery rhyme.

It seems like they have an interesting family dynamic going, too. Poor Modesty (wow, the puns are going to write themselves down the line)—it can’t be easy being the daughter of a fanatic.

Finally, let’s check out the descriptions of the members of the Shaw family, two of whom we already know.

"HENRY SHAW, SR. (Jon Voight)Henry Shaw, Sr. is a newspaper magnate with two sons. His elder son, and his pride and joy, is a senator, who is running for re-election. His younger son, Langdon, is something of a failure in his eyes, so Henry Sr. is dismissive of him when he tries to call his father’s attention to recent strange occurrences in New York City.SENATOR HENRY SHAW (Josh Cowdery)Senator Shaw, the eldest son of newspaper magnate Henry Shaw, Sr., is running for re-election in New York. With Prohibition still the law of the land, he rails against the speak-easies and pool rooms and the corruption he believes is behind them. Like his father, he doesn’t think much of his younger brother, Langdon, and scoffs at the notion of some magical being terrorizing the city."

Langdon Shaw, you say? Intrigue.

Image: Warner Bros.

"LANGDON SHAW (Ronan Raftery)Langdon Shaw is the younger son of newspaper magnate Henry Shaw Sr. Unlike his older brother, who is a senator, Langdon has never lived up to his father’s expectations, but is always trying to win his approval. When he learns of a series of mysterious events in New York City, which point to something magical, he brings it to his father, thinking he’s found the story of the century. However, his father and brother dismiss him out of hand."

Langdon may well intersect with Newt and company eventually.

Incidentally, Ronan Raftery is an Irish actor who’s been working in film and TV for the last six years. He played an “Army Heckler” in the first Captain America movie and now he’s here.

What do you guys think of the descriptions and new characters? We certainly are getting a lot of info ahead of the movie’s November 18 release!

Next: Fantastic Beasts summary confirms that Grindelwald will be a part of the story

h/t SnitchSeeker