Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, the followup to 2016’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, will hit theaters on November 16 in the USA. The series as a whole is a prequel to J.K. Rowling’s incredibly popular Harry Potter story, which it them a hot commodity. Written by Rowling herself, The Crimes of Grindelwald follows Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) as he tracks dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald (Johnny Depp) at the behest of a young Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law). Watch the trailer:
I’ll confess: I’m a big Harry Potter fan, but I thought the first Fantastic Beasts movie was a little bland. This film could be an improvement, but for my money, the most interesting thing to come out of this trailer is the controversy surrounding South Korean actress Claudia Kim’s portrayal of Nagini.
If you’re familiar with Potter, you may recognize Nagini as the name of the snake constantly at the side of Lord Voldemort, the one who bit Professor Snape to death in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
Good times. Good, weird times.
But in this movie, Nagini is a…y’know, a person, and not a snake. So how did that happen? According to Rowling, Nagini is a Maledictuses, a human woman cursed to eventually turn into an animal and be unable to turn back.
They're different conditions. Maledictuses are always women, whereas werewolves can be either sex. The Maledictus carries a blood curse from birth, which is passed down from mother to daughter. https://t.co/wYfvPeQFRW
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) September 25, 2018
Not at all. The slow transformation into a beast is beyond their control, but they aren't destined to be evil.
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) September 25, 2018
In The Crimes of Grindelwald, Nagini is still able to change from human to snake and back at will, although she knows that eventually the transformation will be irreversible. When we meet her, she’s the main attraction at a wizarding freak show. Rowling claims to have been sitting on this particular twist for “around 20 years,” although not all of her fans are buying it:
But fans giving Rowling side-eye over the retroactivity of this plot twist is the least of the movie’s problems. More alarming are the many accusing Warner Bros. and Rowling of tone-deafness in casting a woman of color — one of only two in the movie, with the other (Zoë Kravitz) playing Leta Lestrange, a “damaged and confused young woman” who comes from a family known for the Dark Arts — as a doomed woman destined to become the killer pet of a magical fascist.
“Let's retroactively turn a woman of color into a literal object owned by a white man inspired by nazis.” https://t.co/JYTQK6YFss
— Charles PM (@CharlesPulliam) September 25, 2018
J.K Rowling is trash and I’m sick of it. Nagini is apparently an East Asian woman.
— mariam (@nightwalkerrs) September 25, 2018
If you don’t see anything racist about an asian woman being the pet of a white man—who is basically magic hitler, I don’t know what to say. pic.twitter.com/QeJxZCWeym
As for Kim herself, she sounds eager for fans to get the full story. “It will be so interesting to see another side of Nagini,” she told Entertainment Weekly. “You’ve only seen her as a Horcrux. In this, she’s a wonderful and vulnerable woman who wants to live. She wants to stay a human being and I think that’s a wonderful contrast to the character.”
This isn’t the first time Fantastic Beasts has been come under scrutiny. Fans also cried foul when it was announced that Depp, who’s been embroiled in domestic abuse allegations involving ex-wife Amber Heard, would continue to play the titular villain.
To stay up to date on everything Game of Thrones, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.
Watch Game of Thrones or Succession for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels