Review | Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore movie review – Harry Potter spin-off series’ third instalment adopts a subdued tone

In the third instalment of the Harry Potter spin-off film series, Eddie Redmayne returns as Newt Scamander and Mads Mikkelsen has Johnny Depp’s Dark Wizard role

The film’s tone is more subdued than the first two, but there are some fantastic beasts on show, including the Qilin, an ‘Asian unicorn’ that looks like Bambi

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Jude Law (front) and Eddie Redmayne in a still from Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore.

Published: 10:00pm, 5 Apr 2022Updated: 10:50pm, 5 Apr 2022

3.5/5 stars

“The world as we know it is coming undone,” remarks Jude Law’s Albus Dumbledore in this third instalment of J.K. Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts franchise.

With an evil megalomaniac grasping for power and chaos brewing on every street corner, this could have been written in 2022, reflecting recent world events. It was not, of course. But Rowling has an unerring ability to weave the magical world she created for Harry Potter and the Fantastic Beasts prequels into our own universe.

Here, change is afoot – not least Mads Mikkelsen drafted in to replace Johnny Depp as Gellert Grindelwald, the Dark Wizard that Dumbledore was once in love with.

This “righteous leader” now contests an election to become Head of the International Confederation of Wizards – an office that will give him absolute power, even over the non-magical world. Mikkelsen plays it in a much lower key than Depp.

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