'Fantastic Beasts' New Trailer Turns 'Harry Potter's World Into A (Bad) X-Men Clone
The newest trailer for Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore is here, presumably thrilling every Harry Potter fan who wished that the original series spent more time exploring the inner lives of the Hogwarts faculty and staff. Incidentally, one of the stars of these new movies is still conspicuously absent. But what really comes through in this trailer is how it’s … actually an X-Men movie?
The Harry Potter stories have always been a tad X-Men-esque, featuring a kid who has unique powers and gets shipped off to a boarding school to hone their skills, ultimately battling the forces of evil as a result. But The Secrets of Dumbledore seems to be pulling from X-Men rather aggressively; the villainous Grindelwald is a lot like Magneto; he wants to violently overthrow the non-special population. And Dumbledore is like Charles Xavier, fighting to keep the Muggles safe. Plus, they’re both formerly close friends (very close) turned enemies, who even have cozy sit-down chats to discuss the matter.
Warner Bros.
20th Century Studios
Warner Bros.
20th Century Studios
Dumbledore and Grindelwald, not unlike their Marvel counterparts, have been battling over the mentorship of young, powerful muta– er, wizards. If that weren’t on the nose enough, both Dumbledore and Xavier are literal professors heading up palatial schools for gifted youngsters.
Warner Bros.
20th Century Studios
Not to mention that both of these stories ultimately exist to tee up a bunch of goofy CGI setpieces. And all of these similarities don’t seem to be a great sign for the Potterverse. For one thing, the set-up is painfully familiar. And for another, if the “Wizarding World” franchise wants to avoid devolving fully into a hollow shell of its former self, sputtering into total cultural irrelevance, maybe patterning itself off of the X-Men movies isn’t the best idea …
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Top Image: Warner Bros./20th Century Studios
