Featured Image Credit: Warner Bros.
Topics: TV And Film, Harry Potter
Gregory Robinson
The third instalment in the Fantastic Beasts franchise dropped in cinemas on Friday but fans of the Potterverse have already started sharing their theories and burning questions.
The Secrets of Dumbledore focuses primarily on the life on the beloved professor who eventually becomes the headmaster at Hogwarts School of Witchraft and Wizardry.
One Potterhead had a burning question regarding the Dumbledore’s storyline and took to Reddit to find answers.
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They asked: “Why was Dumbledore teaching Defense [sic] Against The Dark Arts and not Transfiguration?"
The question relates to the franchise’s second film, The Crimes of Grindelwald, in which Dumbledore not seen teaching Transfiguration like he did at Hogwarts. Fans were left bemused by the change, and wondered whether he'd switched subjects or whether it was evidence of an accidental plot hole.
Fans had hoped that the new film would provide some much-needed explanation regarding the change, which is not canon in the book.
As fans are aware, D.A.D.A. is taught to students to defend themselves against dark magic. Voldemort cursed the D.A.D.A. teaching position after he was turned away for a second time by Dumbledore.
The curse means that the course can only have the same teacher for about a year and most D.A.D.A. teachers end up meeting a dreadful fate.
One fan, who has seen the new film, replied: “Maybe that's what he was originally recruited for. We never had all the information on Dumbledore's working history - we don't even know when he started teaching in the first place.”
Another person suggested that the character Minerva McGonagall, could explain Dumbledore’s change in profession.
They wrote: “Based on the stories from Hogwarts canon, Minerva originally returned to Hogwarts for ‘a job in the Transfiguration department, under Head of Department, Albus Dumbledore’.
“Minerva got hired in the Transfiguration department. When she started teaching Transfiguration, Dumbledore would have to do something else; to teach a different subject. Based on Fantastic Beasts he changed to DADA [Defence Against the Dark Arts], which is not unheard of.”
A third fan replied: “Maybe he taught DADA before Transfiguration, or maybe he was substituting.”
Harry Potter fans had been eagerly awaiting The Secrets of Dumbledore to discover more about the wizard.
In a fleeting scene from the trailer for the new film, Dumbledore (Jude Law) is seen sitting down with Grindelwald (Mads Mikkelsen) before revealing his true feelings.
It marks the first time Dumbledore’s feelings are addressed on screen after author and Fantastic Beasts screenwriter J.K Rowling confirmed that he is gay back in 2007.
At the time, Rowling told fans that Dumbledore had, in his past, fallen in love with the charming wizard Gellert Grindelwald. But when Grindelwald got himself wrapped up in the world of the dark arts, Dumbledore was "terribly let down" and went on to take him down in a battle between good and evil.
Dumbledore and Grindelwald’s relationship is explored in the new film and fans couldn’t be happier.
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore is in cinemas now.