The evil wizard (Mads Mikkelsen, replacing the cancelled Johnny Depp) remains crushingly familiar (he’s Voldemort with a nose) but the Danish actor delivers a less showy and more creepy villain.
Now we’re in the 1930s and Grindelwald is hoping to hijack an election and become the first anti-Muggle leader of the magical world.
When Dumbledore and Grindelwald were young lovers, they made a blood pact never to fight each other, and sealed it in a magical amulet.
But while the Hogwarts’ headmaster can’t stop him with magic, he can scheme from the sidelines.
So a crack team is assembled made up of Newt, Newt’s brother Theseus (Callum Turner), witch Eulalie Hicks (Jessica Williams) and Muggle baker Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler).
Highlights include a subterranean prison break and a spectacular wand fight in the streets of Berlin.
It’s more entertaining than the first two films but there’s still a Hogwarts-sized hole in this series. I suspect it was the childish wonder of its young heroes that made the original Potter movies so magical.
Fantastic Beasts: The secrets of Dumbledore… in cinemas now