Fantastic Beasts 2: First look at Jude Law as Dumbledore, title revealed

The franchise has long teased the ultimate showdown between Dumbledore and the villainous Grindelwald

The Harry Potter franchise found a new burst of life last year with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which dialled the decades back to follow magizoologist Newt Scamander and his adventures in New York City.

This new tale continues with Fantastic Beasts 2, with Warner Bros. now unveiling the sequel's official title: Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.

A title which certainly fits early plot details, confirming the story will initially take place just months after the first film, Johnny Depp's Grindelwald having escaped from prison.

"The only one who might be able to stop him is the wizard he once called his dearest friend, Albus Dumbledore [played by Jude Law]," the film's synopsis reads. "But Dumbledore will need help from the wizard who had thwarted Grindelwald once before, his former student Newt Scamander."

The new film will start off in London, before moving to Paris, and there's promise of "some surprising nods to the Harry Potter series that will delight fans of the books and film series".

Returning cast members include Eddie Redmayne, Depp, Katherine Waterston, Alison Sudol, Dan Fogler, and — perhaps most surprisingly — Ezra Miller, who played the haunted Credence. Zoë Kravitz, who showed up in a photograph as Leta Lestrange, will actually appear in full here.

Newcomers include War & Peace’s Callum Turner as the “famed Theseus Scamander” (AKA Newt’s older brother), with Avengers: Age of Ultron’s Claudia Kim joining as a mysterious “young woman we first meet as a featured attraction at a wizarding circus”.

Other cast additions include William Nadylam as a wizard named Yusuf Kama, Ingvar Sigurdsson as a bounty hunter named Grimmson, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson as Skender, who runs the wizarding circus, and Kevin Guthrie as Abernathy, Tina and Queenie’s boss at MACUSA (Magical Congress of the USA).

Directed by David Yates once more, the film expected to reach cinemas 16 November 2018.