News Round-Up: November 2021

Harry Potter: Wizards Unite announced they will be shutting down the mobile game for good, just as the Fantastic Beasts events have begun. It will be removed from the app store this December 6th, with the game fully shutting down operations on January 31st 2022.

Players can look forward to some gameplay changes that will take effect on November 2, 2021:

• All Daily Assignments will have their rewards increased
• All Potion Brew times will be reduced by 50% with Master Notes
• The daily cap on sending and opening Gifts will be removed
• Barrufio’s Brain Elixir potion will now award 3× player XP
• 1920s Portkey Portmanteaus will appear on the map more frequently and associated Fragment rewards will be doubled
• Spell Energy and Ingredients will appear on the map more frequently

More about the events and changes to come can be read here.

In the US? Tickets to Harry Potter: The Exhibition, which launches February 18th 2022, go on sale from today. Visitors to the exhibition will get an up-close look at authentic props and original costumes from the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts films as they “engage with innovative, awe-inspiring, and magical environments and installations in this: the most comprehensive touring exhibition ever presented about the Wizarding World.”

Tour dates and tickets to the exhibition can be found here.

In an interview with BBC Sounds, Eddie Redmayne spoke briefly about Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore:

“It’s been a while since we’ve finished filming. I did some ADR, which is post production, the other day and I just love the magic of that world and I hope that this film will have some of that kind of joy and humour and kind of… I always used to love diving into the Potter films, to immerse yourself in them, in that magical space, and I hope we have that again in this one.

I haven’t seen it yet but touch wood it will be a good movie.”

James Newton Howard, composer for the Fantastic Beasts franchise, spoke about his work on Secrets of Dumbledore during a Q&A session at Abbey Road:

“The movie I’m working on now is Fantastic Beasts three. I’ve been composing it for eight months and rewritten a good part of it many times and I agree with you that exposure and immersion in a movie over a long period of time affords you a different kind of opportunity and you can rethink it, redo it, but it’s very painful sometimes.

Right now I’m working with David Yates. He always steers me one way – the most critical thing for him is story, and he’s absolutely right. So at a certain point the music, unless it’s serving the story, it doesn’t matter how good the music is.

For me, doing Fantastic Beasts here [at Abbey Road], the opportunity doesn’t get better than that. It’s two hours and twenty something minutes of music, all hell breaking loose, romance, adventure, magic; it’s great.”

Heavily rumoured for many months, Brazilian actress Maria Fernanda Cândido has finally been confirmed for Secrets of Dumbledore via the IMDB page. Her role has not officially been announced as of yet.

James Newton Howard has posted to instagram to let fans know that his work on the third Fantastic Beasts film has officially wrapped:

“After eight months and thirty-eight three hour sessions (including some with the marvelous London Voices Choir here), work on Fantastic Beasts 3 is finished!”

James Newton Howard spoke to Edith Bowman on the Soundtracking Podcast about working on the third Fantastic Beasts, and with David Yates:

“The third one is just so great, I have to say. It’s just a wonderful film. Johnny Depp is no longer playing Grindelwald but this wonderful actor named Mads Mikkelsen is playing Grindelwald and he brings a whole different kind of weight to the thing. Johnny did a great job as well, obviously, but this has been the most challenging one yet because I’m trying to keep the essence of all of the Beasts movies alive, but there’s just epically huge scenes, and a bunch of them in this movie, and it’s totally kicked my butt.”

Q: Is that a good thing?

“Last night at 10.30 doing choir I would not say it’s a good thing, after a triple session, but yes, of course it’s a good thing. I’ve been challenged to the max and David Yates, the director, is the T-Rex of note givers. I look at these notes from David, and I tell him all the time, when I see a note in my email box I go ‘Oh no it’s pages’, but it’s great. His notes are always about one thing – story. Am I telling the same story the director is telling? And if I’m not then we have a dissonance, we have a problem that I have to figure out – how to tell the same stories.”