With director David Yates’ Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore now playing around the world, I recently spoke with Alison Sudol and Dan Fogler about making the sequel. In the new Fantastic Beasts movie, which is my favorite one yet, Professor Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) recruits an intrepid team of wizards, witches and one brave Muggle baker to take on the powerful Dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald (Mads Mikkelsen) as he attempts to seize control of the Wizarding World. Unlike the previous Fantastic Beasts, the new one manages to not only bring back people and places that audiences know and love, but also tells the story of Newt Scamander, his beasts, and their importance in this world. While I don’t want to say this is the best one yet due to just one person, the fact that this is screenwriter Steve Kloves’ first time working on a Fantastic Beasts movie after writing all the Harry Potter movies….it might be all him. The screenplay was also written by novel series author J.K. Rowling.
During the fun and relaxed interview, they talked about what it was like trying to figure out how to use their wands, who made them laugh the most on set, what fans would be surprised to learn about the making of a Fantastic Beasts movie, what you should watch if you’ve never seen their work before, if they “borrowed” anything from set, and what it’s like traveling the world promoting the movie.
The cast of Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore also features Jessica Williams, William Nadylam, Callum Turner, Victoria Yeates, Poppy Corby-Tuech, Fiona Glascott, Katherine Waterston, Maria Fernanda Cândido, Richard Coyle, Oliver Masucci, and Valerie Pachner.
Check out what they had to say in the player above and below is exactly what we talked about.
Alison Sudol and Dan Fogler
- If someone has never seen anything they’ve done before, what should they watch first and why?
- What would surprise someone to learn about the making of a Fantastic Beasts movie?
- What is it like traveling the world promoting a movie?
- How did they prepare to use their wands in the movie? Were they told to watch how the actors did it in the Harry Potter movies?
- What did they “borrow” from set?
- Who made them laugh the most while filming?