He’s not quite the central character (the film lacks one, splitting focus between Dumbledore, Newt and Grindelwald Ezra Miller’s Credence features less prominently than expected), but he brings much-needed sparkle to proceedings, his Gambon-esque, twinkly warmth offset by a sense of unknowability. The MVP, though, is Jude Law’s Dumbledore. Fogler’s Jacob, too, remains a franchise highlight as the outsider looking in on the Wizarding World -here given his own wand and stepping inside Hogwarts’ hallowed halls, wish fulfilment at its highest. Newt remains an admirably ambling hero, introspective but good-natured, and his interplay with his cooler, calmer big brother is nicely played (“You’re not swivelling properly!” Newt chides when the pair are forced to dance for a crowd of murderous, lobster-like manticores).

It would be nice for the audience to know, too - but despite an overstuffed plot, Dumbledore’s game of wizarding chess is a mostly entertaining one. How it all fits together is on a need-to-know basis. So it is that magizoologist Newt ( Eddie Redmayne), his Auror brother Theseus ( Callum Turner), assistant Bunty (Victoria Yeates), muggle baker Jacob ( Dan Fogler), Ilvermorny teacher Lally ( Jessica Williams, a likeable newcomer), and the mysterious Yusuf (William Nadylam) are split into groups on intersecting missions, masterminded by the wizarding legend. With the wizard-supremacist rhetoric of Grindelwald (whose new Mikkelsen-shaped appearance is no more remarked upon than that of Michael Gambon’s Dumbledore in The Prisoner Of Azkaban) gaining ground, Dumbledore (Jude Law) hatches a plan of counter-attack - and lest his pawns be captured, nobody is given the full picture. Some of that obscure(ial) plotting can be forgiven - often a feature more than a bug, since The Secrets Of Dumbledore positions itself as a spy thriller amid a brewing magical war.

The MVP, though, is Jude Law’s Dumbledore –he brings much-needed sparkle to proceedings, his Gambon-esque, twinkly warmth offset by a sense of unknowability.

Dumbledore movie