IDs, Please: Take a Look Inside Fantastic Beasts’ Wizarding Speakeasy

Entertainment Weekly takes the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them audience inside the film’s spellbinding underground bar.

Aside from being an extension of the Harry Potter universe, one of the big draws of the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them series is the first movie’s setting. 1920s New York carries its own sort of enchantment. Not to mention, the decade was one cultural phenomenon after another, and as such the time period has become a staple of American history studies. The twenties is a singularly distinctive period. Fittingly, it seems that the Fantastic Beasts filmmakers were careful to portray some of those details.

The exact year in which the film is set is 1926, so prohibition (1920-1933) was in full swing. Even if it hadn’t been, it’s likely the American wizarding community would frequent bars separate from the No-Majs. You can’t really cut loose if you’re worrying about the Statute of Secrecy, after all.

In any case, we get a glimpse of a wizarding speakeasy in a few of the Fantastic Beasts TV spots. And a glimpse was all we got, until recently. Entertainment Weekly came to the exclusive rescue and dug up more intel on the joint.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)

The Blind Pig Speakeasy Concept Art

This magical underground bar (pictured above) is called the Blind Pig, a name much in the same vein as the Hog’s Head. The Blind Pig does, however, seem more well-populated and better lit than Aberforth Dumbledore’s rather questionable hangout. Still, it’s the go-to place for our protagonists to discuss sensitive information. Hopefully it pans out better for Newt and Tina than it did for the Golden Trio in Order of the Phoenix. It’s lucky for our new heroes that Dolores Umbridge isn’t dogging their every move.

As it happens, Newt isn’t popping into the Blind Pig for a shot of firewhiskey, however much he could use one. According to production designer Stuart Craig, “[i]t’s a disreputable place with nicotine-stained tiles of an appalling character and a bit of a lowlife that’s actually quite fun.”

Entertainment Weekly extrapolated upon the circumstances in which star Hufflepuff Newt Scamander finds himself in such a disreputable place:

"“Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) and […] Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston) are on the hunt for information about the mysterious young Credence Barebone (Ezra Miller) when they venture into a sketchy magical speakeasy of scum and villainy called the Blind Pig that’s not entirely unlike a wizarding-world version of the famous Tatooine outpost.”"

EW says Tatooine, I say the Poison Apple Pub (let’s hear it for the Shrek 2 fans).

Whatever you want to liken the Blind Pig to, Newt and Tina’s visit does raise some questions. Credence Barebone is just as big a mystery to Potter fans as he is to his fellow fictional characters. Who is he, exactly, and what do Newt and Tina need from him? What sort of reputation does he have, since the pair needs to go slumming to learn the deets? Does he play a part in the recapture of Newt’s magical creatures? Or does he play a bigger, perhaps more sinister role? Grindelwald is the talk of the town, after all.

Curiouser and curiouser…

Next: Yates Drops Hints About Dumbledore's Role in Fantastic Beasts

We’ll find out the whole story November 18th. If we’re lucky, that is. Should Credence play a larger part in the first movie, perhaps we’ll be unraveling his mystery throughout the following four.