Thanks to Zak Bamford we have a short video of a scene being filmed in a night shoot at St. George’s Hall:
The crowd of Muggles is chanting “We Want A Second Salem” (as in Salem witch trials) while holding signs saying “No Witchcraft In America”.
Thanks to Portkey & Opdiario for the news!
UPDATE:
Photos from the filming can be seen below:
Thanks to Reddit user jjester93 we have a report on what happened during this scene:
A bunch of extras were chanting. We later realised they were chanting ‘WE WANT A SECOND SALEM!’. There were placards saying NO WITCHCRAFT IN AMERICA and THERE ARE WITCHES AMONG US. There were top hats and costumes consistent with 1920s New York. I got the feeling the scene is outside a town hall or courthouse. There was artificial snow on the steps.
There were also Candidate posters of some sort for ‘Shaw Senior’ and a photo. A mayor or elected official? Also there was a banner/standard with the Acronym NSPS (one of these could stand for Salem?). Below was an image of two hands snapping a wand, above flames, emblazoned on a red background. There were very old NYPD cars and police officers and some were on horses in the courtyard.
We glimpsed Eddie Redmayne, he was the only character without some form of tophat or bowler hat. We also glimpsed David Yates the director.
Eddie is the only hatless individual, and is walking around the crowd at the top of the stairs, and one of the top hat officials with his wife (not part of the rabble/crowd) is climbing the stairs to the courthouse, and knocks into him. Eddie seemed to drop something, maybe a pamphlet for propaganda, picks it up and looks at it thoughtfully.
It’s of interest to note the banner with NSPS on it – this suggests a political party whose specific intention is to rid America of witches & wizards – from this we can assume that Shaw is either their current political leader, or a candidate. Both the NSPS banner & Shaw posters can be seen in the gallery above.
Our Theories:
There is a formal occasion going on in the Town Hall, either a wedding or dance, where either known wizards or a political figure sympathetic to them, is in attendance.
Considering the rally is against witchcraft, the “executioner” characters may actually be for the witches & wizards, not the beasts set loose in New York (that the exterminators were called in for).
Jon Voight arrived in Liverpool late last week to begin filming, so it’s likely his character is a politician.
