- WARNING: Major spoilers ahead for "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald."
- In a deleted scene, available on the "Crimes of Grindelwald" Blu-ray, Dumbledore reveals the reason why Grindelwald is so interested in Credence.
- Dumbledore reveals that he sent Newt to New York because he knew that Grindelwald would also be there, searching for an obscurial.
- "[Grindelwald] had a vision you see, many years ago, in which an obscurial killed the man he fears above all others," Dumbledore says. "I thought you [Newt] might deprive Grindelwald of his weapon, not by killing Credence, but by saving him."
- J.K. Rowling previously revealed that Grindelwald is a Seer, which means he can look into the future.
WARNING: Major spoilers ahead for "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald."
After seeing the second installment of the "Fantastic Beasts" franchise, many "Harry Potter" fans left the theatre justly confused— particularly when it came to the film's titular villain and his motives.
Grindelwald gets plenty of screen time in the film, but very little dialogue, and even less clarity. He appears to spend the majority of the film scheming to get Credence Barebone, a powerful obscurial, to join his cause. But the exact reason why he needs this young, vulnerable wizard is so desperately was unclear.
But now, thanks to a deleted scene (available on the "Crimes of Grindelwald" Blu-ray), we now have a much better idea of Grindelwald's intentions with Credence.
This is your last chance to head back before spoilers.
In the brief scene, Dumbledore reveals the reason why Grindelwald sought out Credence.
Dumbledore tells Newt that he sent him to New York (in the previous film, under the guise of rescuing a trafficked Thunderbird) because he knew that Grindelwald would also be there, searching for an obscurial.
"I knew Grindelwald would try to catch Credence," Dumbledore tells Newt. "He had a vision you see, many years ago, in which an obscurial killed the man he fears above all others."
"You," Newt replies.
"I thought you might deprive Grindelwald of his weapon, not by killing Credence, but by saving him," Dumbledore explains.
J.K. Rowling previously revealed that Grindelwald is a Seer, which means he can look into the future.
Though this deleted scene is brief, it does give more insight into Grindelwald's motives.
Essentially, the dark wizard hopes to use Credence to kill Dumbledore.
Of course, we later discover that Grindelwald cannot battle Dumbledore on his own, due to a blood pact they made as teenagers. But without knowing about Grindelwald's vision, the reason why he picked Credence to turn against Dumbledore didn't make much sense.
Credence is unstable and untrained; he's certainly powerful, given that he has survived with an obscurus for so long, but Grindelwald didn't know that when he was searching for the obscurial in the first film.
Grindelwald also couldn't have known from the outset that Credence was secretly Dumbledore's brother, so that couldn't have been the reason why he originally wanted to find him, either.
The deleted scene also sheds some light on some of Dumbledore's confusing actions.
Newt is a magizoologist; he is probably not the most powerful wizard that Dumbledore knows, nor is he trained in fighting the dark arts. It doesn't make much sense why Dumbledore would pick him to "move against" Grindelwald.
But we know that Newt previously had success with extracting an obscurus from a young girl. Now we can deduce that Dumbledore only wanted Newt to find Credence first, and probably did not intend for Newt to interact with Grindelwald at all.
Dumbledore also hopes that Newt will find and rescue Credence in Paris before Grindelwald can get to him, as we see in the new scene.
Obviously, Newt failed both times. So we'll have to wait and see how his role in Dumbledore's plan changes now that Credence is fully in Grindelwald's clutches.
Ezra Miller, who portrays Credence, reflected on the character's connection to Grindelwald in a film extra called "Credence, Nagini and the Circus Arcanus," also available on the Blu-ray.
"He is now setting out on a journey of self-discovery to understand his own point of origin, and this is the transformation," Miller said. "Grindelwald holds the knowledge. [Credence] is victim to violence and, ultimately, being so easily manipulated. That's the tragedy."
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