Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore: The Original Screenplay (Fantastic Beasts: The Original Screenplay #3)

Published July 2022 by Little, Brown Book Group, Hardcover

The official complete screenplay of Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore by J.K. Rowling & Steve Kloves, accompanied by illuminating behind-the-scenes content and commentary.

Professor Albus Dumbledore knows the powerful Dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald is moving to seize control of the wizarding world. Unable to stop him alone, he entrusts Magizoologist Newt Scamander to lead an intrepid team of wizards, witches, and one brave Muggle baker on a dangerous mission, where they encounter old and new beasts and clash with Grindelwald’s growing legion of followers. But with the stakes so high, how long can Dumbledore remain on the sidelines?

The official screenplay of Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore is the ultimate companion to the film, and invites readers to explore every scene of the complete script penned by J.K. Rowling & Steve Kloves. Special features include behind-the-scenes content and commentary from David Yates, David Heyman, Jude Law, Eddie Redmayne, Colleen Atwood, and more.

User Reviews

Anya

Rating: really liked it
Can this book please just come out already? I did my waiting, TWELVE YEARS OF IT. IN AZKABAN!

I'll go home.

Shawna Finnigan

Rating: really liked it
Trans people are real and valid. JKR doesn’t get a say on how trans people choose to identify. Since there wasn’t a used copy of this book available and I had to buy a new copy, I'm choosing to make a donation to For the Gworls, an organization that helps with rent and gender-affirming surgery for trans people. I also donated to trans organizations every time I saw the movie in theaters. This series needs at least one more movie, but I wish that JKR would sell the rights to this series so that we could get another Fantastic Beasts movie without her involvement. Steve Kloves wrote the screenplays for seven of the Harry Potter movies, so he’s proven that he’s fully capable of continuing writing this series without JKR’s involvement. Even if JKR doesn’t want to sell the series, there’s still time for her to delete her tweets and show her support to the trans community. She needs to follow the advice of Dumbledore’s words from this screenplay: “Do what is right. Not what is easy.”

Warning: This review will contain mild spoilers for the movie.

If you haven’t seen the movie yet, I highly recommend watching the movie before reading the screenplay. This story relies on a lot of visual elements and the descriptions in the screenplay don’t do the movie justice.

This review will also be extremely biased because I’m a Theseus Scamander simp.

The Secrets of Dumbledore is a very character driven story that has interesting character arcs for all of the main characters. I particularly loved what this story did with Queenie and Theseus. Queenie is a character who clearly has a very complex story arc. She went from a loveable protagonist to a villain who betrays everyone she cares about. In this sequel, you can see the depths of guilt that she feels after the path she chose in the previous installment but even though her time in this story was depressing, The Secrets of Dumbledore ends on a really positive note for her and the way that her story ended in this one really shocked me the first time I saw the movie. Theseus, on the other hand, started off as a character that most people hated since he was a typical snobby older brother, but he changes into a stoic hero in this film and it made me fall in love with him even more. He truly is such a fascinating character and if we don’t get another Fantastic Beasts movie, I hope that we get a novel or short story that focuses on him. I really hope that he isn’t forced into a relationship with Lally in the next installments (although that’s where it feels like the story is going). I personally would like to see Lally and Bunty together. The few interactions that they had in this story (especially Lally’s cute little “You too, Bunty girl” quote) made me ship them so much.

This screenplay did a great job at naturally weaving in Dumbledore and Grindelwald’s romantic history. It’s a big deal for gay representation to be included in this story.

There was also tons of humor in this story. The swiveling scene will always be my favorite scene from this entire series.

If you’ve read the other screenplays in this series, you’ll know that the screenplays are word-for-word what was in the movie. This one was a little different though. There were quotes from the cast members, costume designers, and producers throughout this book. There’s also beautiful sketches of costume designs and locations as well as some of the designs that the wonderful MinaLima made for this movie. It’s stuff that I appreciated because I’m a die hard fan of the movie, but if you didn’t enjoy The Secrets of Dumbledore movie, you can skip this screenplay.

I’m not going to pretend that there isn’t flaws in this screenplay. I think all of us are able to spot a few, but I still enjoyed this story for what it is. One flaw that bugs me though that I’m wondering if anyone has an explanation for is the number of cases in the final sequence. There’s seven in total if you include the real one since Bunty asked for six replicas to be made, but only five cases are in the Room of Requirement. I’ve been able to figure out that Bunty must’ve hidden the real one somewhere where no one could find it except herself, but where’s the seventh case?

I want to end my review with one of my favorite quotes. This quote sort of feels like a jab at Trump and all his supporters. I don’t know if it was an intentional jab at them, but it still makes me happy.

“It’s at moments such as these we are reminded that it is this peaceful transfer of power that marks our humanity and demonstrates to the world that, despite our differences, all voices deserve to be heard.”

Dana Al-Basha | دانة الباشا

Rating: really liked it
That cliffhanger though? We know the ending but not what happened in between. I just noticed the 2020 release date! WHY?! The movie and the book will take TWO YEARS to come out!

Rachael

Rating: really liked it
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: fantastic!
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald: not so fantastic.
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore: the series should have ended after Book/Film 1 with Newt/Tina, Queenie/Jacob and the Beasts living happily ever after leaving Grindelwald and Dumbledore to fight it out between themselves.
I haven't read this screenplay and it's more and more likely I won't read it. A lot of fuss has been made about this so called secret and I just know it is going to be so anti-climatic. But, while I was browsing in the books section of my local supermarket, I picked up a copy and had a peek at the very end. One line made me angry, the next made me happy. (view spoiler) I only read one or two scenes and I wasn't convinced enough to read the rest.
Oh and I am not impressed with the cover design change. The MinaLima designs for Books One and Two were pretty, this one not so much and now the series won't match.

Tarria♪

Rating: really liked it
EDIT: I am still seething at the change of covers halfway through the series. No way am I getting a physical copy now. The first two books continue to stand beautifully on my bookshelf so it's a shame they'll be alone. Maybe one day we'll get a complimenting version.

Waiting for this to come out is worse than waiting for the actual movie. These screenplays have the most gorgeous covers I've ever seen and it's paining me trying to guess what colour this one will be...

-Blood red? (Like the blood pact!)
-Deep plum velvet? (Dumbledore's eccentric suit)
-Burnt orange? (Not sure of this one but it'd go well with the gold)
-Dark green? (Like snakes maybe? Actually maybe too similar to COG...)
-MAGENTA?! This would just look amazing. Also it'd go with the tone of the book since the movie seems a bit more comical than the last one, judging by the trailer at least.
-Soft grey? If the movie is actually a lot darker?

Ah well judging by my past guesses I'll be completely wrong.

Kloe

Rating: really liked it
After seeing the crimes of Grindelwald , I’m not sure if I am going to be less excited for this .i just hope this won’t suck too . I will have to wait for another two more years for this screenplay . Sigh .

Alyson Stone

Rating: really liked it
Book: Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore
Author: JK Rowling and Steve Kloves
Rating: 5 Out of 5 Stars

I wish that these had been turned into books instead of movies. I’m putting that out there. You can see the bones of a great story and I think had JK Rowling written the books, we could have had something that was up there with Harry Potter. The scripts are very well written. They just don’t come across the screen, at times, the best.

This is the third volume of the Fantastic Beasts series. It picks right up where the second one left off. Grindelwald is gaining ground in the world and it is up to Newt and company to spot him. Newt is called upon by Dumbledore to do so and will be joined by a rather odd mix of characters. While many of them are familiar to us, there were some new faces. With a rather complex plan put in place, the group starts on their mission. If they fail, Grindelwald could end up being in charge of the magical community. The stakes are high.

This one is a lot different from the first two. While the first book focused more on the action, flare, and plot of the wizarding world, this one slows all of that down a little bit. Instead, we get to look more at the characters, which is what I think the movies were missing all along. I enjoyed this change in direction. Up until this point, I felt like I didn’t know the characters. I hadn’t had a chance to bond with too many of them. Here, we finally get that. There were a lot of times that it felt kind of slow but I like it. We get to see the Dumbledores together as they try to make sense of the past. Newt and Theseus have a lot of brotherly moments. We see little hints of other bonds being formed. It’s like all of these characters were finally given their moment, their time to allow their talents to come into play. We needed this. What made Harry Potter stand out was the deep bonds that the characters had with one another. We get that here. While it is not as well developed as Harry Potter, we can see it trying to come into play. I only wish that it had happened sooner in the series.

We can also see Grindelwald becoming the villain that we have been told about. In this one, we see why he brings people to him. He is lonely and wants company. He wants to feel welcomed by others. We still don’t know what he hates Muggles though. This is something that I think would drive his character arc home. We just know he doesn’t like them. With Voldemort, we know why through his backstory. Because of this, Voldemort’s actions do make a little bit more sense. We don’t get that with Grindelwald. He is still one of those characters who has not been fully developed. If we had this little bit of information, it would help his character. I just don’t think he is developed enough to have the allure at Voldemort. Unlike Voldermort, we also know what Grindelwald is up to. This takes away a lot of the suspense. If Grindelwald was not a point of view character, it may also help.

Like the other volumes, there are some things that don’t check out with the Wizarding World lore. I am one of those people who is fine with the world being modern, but it doesn’t fit what we know about this world. I don’t know. I know a lot of people have complained about this, but I guess we’ll have to live with it.

Anyway, I still did have a great time with this one. It’s always great to return to this world.

Lilah

Rating: really liked it
No expected release date ?!?!?!!? I have questions I need answers to!!! HOW DARE YOU JKR

Angel (Bookn.All.Night)

Rating: really liked it
I love the screenplay format as it tends to lead my imagination in a better and easier way. This wasn't my favorite of the series but I still enjoyed it a lot. Now to go and watch the movies to see what is better...books or the big screen.

Ally

Rating: really liked it
When looking back on the plot of this screenplay it feels like absolutely nothing has happened. I feel like this was a filler book. Hopefully it's just because it is a screenplay and not formatted as a novel.

Miriam Andrea

Rating: really liked it
This is a (short) review of the movie, but the book will contain exactly the same, so...

I loved it! I loved the way she "solved" the whole Credence being a Dumbledore issue. I was so sure that I would walk out of the theater when I found out but I didn't!
I also enjoyed that Kowalsky played such a big role and that we got to see so many familiar characters again.
However, I do wonder what happened to Nagini (feel free to use my comment section to discuss this) as she does not appear.

All in all the movie reminded me a lot of Rita Skeeter's book "Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore", although there is still so much missing and I'd love to read Rita's book, too!

But what's up with the cover? I'm really not a big fan of it. I prefer a series having the same appearance and the first two screenplays looked so amazing, sad to see it change!

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