Return to the Potter-verse in second full trailer for 'Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore'

After a four-year hiatus away from the big screen, the Wizarding World is ready to Apparate back into theaters this April with the third Fantastic Beasts movie: The Secrets of Dumbledore. The film, whose U.K. production hit a number of COVID-related speed bumps since March 2020, just released its second magical trailer that teases the formation of Dumbledore's "first army" (a nice little reference to the anti-Voldemort defense group founded decades later by Harry Potter in Order of the Phoenix).

Their goal? Prevent the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald (Mads Mikkelsen replacing Johnny Depp) from subjugating the Muggle world. That's a lot easier said than done because Albus (Jude Law) — who once loved Gellert when the two were young men — agreed to a binding magical pact forbidding him from making a direct move against his former paramour. Of course, longtime fans of the series know that the agreement can and will be broken because Dumbledore ultimately defeated Grindelwald in an epic duel in 1945 that bagged him ownership over the Elder Wand.

In the meantime, however, the world's wisest wizard must rely on a number of allies like his estranged brother Aberforth (Richard Coyle), preeminent magical zoologist Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), Newt's brother Theseus (Callum Turner), Newt's bestiary assistant Bunty (Victoria Yeates), French wizard Yusuf Kama (William Nadylam), Ilvermorny professor Eulalie Hicks (Jessica Williams), and even the good-natured No-Maj baker Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler). It seems that after Queenie Goldstein (Alison Sudol), left Jacob to join up the dark side, the American Muggle, who's clearly taken off a few pounds, went back to his baking business and wants nothing to do with the magical world. But how can he refuse once he's offered an honest to goodness wand and a shot of Giggle Water?

Watch below:

The trailer, which wastes no time in returning viewers to the hallowed (pun intended) halls of Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, emphasizes the importance of memory by way of a monologue from Michael Gambon's elderly Dumbledore from the Potter films. Our biggest question that popped up with the debut of the first trailer several wants ago still stands: where in the Wizarding World is Katherine Waterston's Tina Goldstein?

Jude Law announced the premiere of new footage last week in a pre-recorded video posted to the Fantastic Beasts social accounts. Originally scheduled to drop Thursday morning, the trailer was postponed (most likely due to Russia's sudden invasion of Ukraine).

In his message, Law discussed the "privilege" of getting to play "one of the world's most powerful wizards; a man who is always one step ahead; a man who believes in the good in people; and someone quick to offer wise, or cryptic, words of advice ... I'm thrilled to say that some of the backstory that helped shape the legendary wizard that we came to love in Harry Potter will be revealed in this film. The stakes are very high for him and he needs an unlikely team of heroes to help him face his greatest test yet."

He closed out by urging fans to share their favorite Dumbledore fan art, quotes, cosplays, tattoos, and more on social channels. The "secrets" to which the project's title refers are numerous — from Albus's boyhood relationship with the world's most wanted magical fugitive to the fact that Obscurus Credence Barebone (Ezra Miller) is secretly a member of the Dumbledore family. Ezra is part of Grindelwald's own fighting force, which also includes Queenie, Vinda Rosier (Poppy Corby-Tuech), and Helmut (Aleksandr Kuznetsov).

New cast members are Oliver Masucci as Anton Vogel, Maria Fernanda Cândido as Vicência Santos, and Dave Wong as Liu Tao.

Attending a special media preview of a brand-new Harry Potter exhibition at Philadelphia's Franklin Institute last week, SYFY WIRE got a chance to speak with Peter van Roden, SVP of Warner Bros. Themed Entertainment, who admitted that he'd seen "a rough cut" of the movie. "It’s fantastic," he teased as we stood in the middle of the exhibit's Quidditch section. "It’s gonna be great. I think you’ll like it."

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore arrives on the big screen Friday, April 15.

Photo: Warner Bros.