The Fantastic Beasts: Secrets Of Dumbledore team assemble to discuss the bond between Dumbledore and Grindelwald ahead of the movie’s release. During the global press conference, Jude Law and Mads Mikkelsen reflect on their “imagined take” on how the characters met and what that meant to them.
Law plays a young Dumbledore in the Harry Potter spin-off film series and cites it was always ‘really important’ to think of who Albus [Dumbledore] was before he met Gellert [Grindelwald].
He says: “I always imagined that being Dumbledore was actually [in] quite a lonely place being. That he was brilliant and outstanding at a very young age, to the point where he probably felt slightly isolated or someone who was maybe diminishing his own sense of power and self and scope and ambition.”
“Then suddenly, he meets someone who is as brilliant and matches him and inspires him and that kind of connection is very, very, very powerful. More so when you’re at a young age,” Law adds.
Mikkelsen plays the Wizarding World villain. He replaces Johnny Depp in the role. With big shoes to fill, the actor claims he had to make it seem authentic. “We wanted this to be real. The magic we take for granted, it’s been with us since we were born, we can’t be wearing the fanboy hat and going, ‘Oh my God, this is magic’, right? So we wanted that relationship to be real, real people, real situation, real disappointment with each other,” he says.
Mads also mentions how no one is born a villain and believes the conflict between both parts is due to ideologies. He states: “I think that they started out having a common and a mutual goal as young adults, and then it got blurry. The ways of getting to that goal were different than they imagined.”
The press con was also joined by producers David Heyman and Tim Lewis, director David Yates, and cast members Alison Sudol (Queenie Goldstein), Dan Fogler (Jacob Kowalski), Eddie Redmayne (Newt Scamander), Jessica Williams (Eulalie Hicks), Jude Law (Albus Dumbledore), Mads Mikkelsen (Gellert Grindelwald), Victoria Yeates (Bunty), and William Nadylam (Yusuf Kama).
Fantastic Beasts releases in UK cinemas on 8th April 2022.
