Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Factual error: A theater marquee is visible promoting the showing of a film called Tribeca Follies. The acronym "Tribeca" - an amalgamation of "Triangle Below Canal [Street]" - didn't come into usage until the 1970s.

Cubs Fan

Factual error: In opening scene of of 1920s New York the Statue of Liberty is in view with the modern refurbished gold leaf torch, not the original iron and glass torch. Lady Liberty's torch was not replaced until October 8th, 1984.

michaelwbaldwin

Factual error: At one point, Newt Scamander says he found one of his beasts in Equatorial Guinea. That country only got that name after independence from Spain in 1968; back in 1926, when the movie is set, the place was known as Spanish Guinea.

brunoparga

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: The Wizarding world is under different political authorities than the Muggle world, which sometimes means countries have different names or boundaries than for Muggles (Transylvania, for instance, still has a national Quidditch team in the 1990s according to the novel of Goblet of Fire, whereas in the Muggle world it was long since absorbed into Romania), so it's entirely possible that in the Wizarding world, Equatorial Guinea was an independent country in 1927.

More mistakes in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Trivia: The banker who turns down Jacob's first request for a loan is named Mr. Bingley, an obvious homage to one of the main characters in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. J. K. Rowling has stated numerous times in interviews that Austen is her favorite author, and this is not the first time she has alluded to her works with a character name; Argus Filch's cat, Mrs. Norris, from the Harry Potter books and movies shares her name with the busybody character from Mansfield Park.

Trivia: Because so little architecture from the decade still exists, David Yates chose not to shoot on location; instead, the production designers created, from scratch, their own painstakingly detailed version of 1920s New York as a practical, physical set.

Cubs Fan

Jacob Kowalski: I don't think I'm dreaming.
Newt Scamander: What gave it away?
Jacob Kowalski: I ain't got the brains to make this up.

Queenie: She's a taker, you need a giver.

More quotes from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Question: How could the Erumpent the size of a whale escape out of Newt's case without Newt around, without his help (magic)? Can Erumpents shrink themselves like Occamies?

Bunch Son

Chosen answer: Erumpents cannot change their size, however the suitcase is itself enchanted to allow objects of any size to enter and exit its magically expanded interior. Newt's presence is not required for this.

Phixius

Answer: This might actually be a valid mistake. The exit of the suitcase is depicted as being inside a hut, at the ceiling. A savanna creature like that would not even consider that to be a route it might be able to take, because that requires (sorry for the pun) out-of-the-box thinking.

Doc

Perhaps that would be true for a non-magical creature; however, there are numerous references in the Wizarding World canon to magical creatures have human-like cognitive abilities (Kneazles are one prominent example), so perhaps Erumpents fall into the same category.

"Perhaps" or "Maybe" generally don't cut it. They usually denote attempts to justify a mistake. In the movie Erumpets aren't displaying any intelligence beyond that of a bull or rhinoceros.

Doc

I agree under normal circumstances the creature wouldn't try to escape. However, as Newt pointed out, this creature was in mating season and was looking for a partner; which is why she went to the zoo as there were the closest creatures she sensed to herself. Animals going out of their natural habitat when they sense a potential mating partner is a natural survival instinct real animals do. As real animals do this, it makes sense this creature would do the same thing as a real animal.

As said elsewhere, the exit is depicted as in the ceiling. Erumpets aren't displaying any intelligence beyond that of a bull or rhinoceros. Climbing out through a roof hatch is not in their behavioral patterns, mating season or not. A bull won't climb a ladder, no matter how many cows are on the roof.

Doc

Chosen answer: Obscurials often manifest around childhood. Children are young and influential, so Graves/Grindelwald can persuade one to let their magic free without much protest in a public place as an indestructible weapon. As we witnessed when Credence rampaged through New York, Obscurials would be far more destructive to whole cities than just casting a lot of spells.

There's WAY more to it than that-although you'd never know it if you only ever watched the original HP films and never read the books. In short, Graves/Grindelwald has had first-hand experience with an Obscurial before. Remember that painting Aberforth Dumbledore had on the wall of the Hog's Head Pub in Deathly Hallows Part 2? That was Ariana Dumbledore, his and Albus' sister. When she was a child, she was attacked by three Muggle boys who caught her doing magic, which traumatized her and caused her to become an Obscurial; the Obscurus inside her later killed the siblings' mother. At the same time, Dumbledore and Grindelwald were plotting together to bring wizards out of hiding and reassert their superiority over Muggles with the help of the Elder Wand. In the end, Aberforth confronted them, leading to a chaotic duel that resulted in Ariana being killed by a stray curse. Dumbledore and Grindelwald went their separate ways, with Grindelwald putting their visions of wizard supremacy into action, while Dumbledore's grief for his sister led him to repent and shun power for the rest of his life. Virtually none of this made it into the movies. But that's why Grindelwald wanted an Obscurial so badly-because he'd seen one before and knew first-hand how lethal they could be.

Actually, it was never 100% confirmed that Ariana did become an Obscurial.

Answer: In the second film in this series, Crimes of Grindelwald, it's revealed that Grindelwald had a vision years ago that he would use an Obscurial to aid him in killing Dumbledore, since the two of them were magically barred from fighting each other. That's why he was so determined to sway Credence to his side.

Question: Newt manged to capture all of the escaped beasts except the billwig. Why did he give up on it? Because it's just a little insect? or he had already many of the species in the case?

Bunch Son

Chosen answer: It's not known why he gave up. Newt did have to leave New York and there was no point in continuing the search at that time.

raywest

More questions & answers from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Trailer not working?

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.