Like pretty much every Potter fan out there, I eagerly went to see “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.” I was prepared to be disappointed. I’d read a number of reviews which decried the muddled storylines, the gratuitous easter eggs for fans, and the messed up timelines. So I saw… Read MoreWhere's the new canon?• Podcast Episode
You might be here on the Lexicon looking for information about the characters, things, creatures, events, etc. from “Crimes of Grindelwald.” If so, you might have to have to wait a week or so for everything to appear. We have a spreadsheet of 143 entries which need to be added… Read MoreThe Fantastic Beasts Saga Timeline• Podcast Episode
The dates for each of these events is derived from a close read of canon sources, including the scripts for Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, and Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. 1881 Albus Dumbledore is born c. 1883 Gellert Grindelwald is born c. Read MoreResource Collection: The Crimes of Grindelwald• Podcast Episode
Here are some helpful resources you might need if you’re researching the new film. We’ll update this with other resources over time. Timelines: Integrating the Dumbledore, Grindelwald, and Voldemort Timelines Timeline: The Rise of Grindelwald The Fantastic Beasts Saga Timeline Characters: Newt Scamander | timeline Gellert… Read More🎙️ Episode 31: The Crimes of Grindelwald Trailer• Podcast Episode
The last week or two has just been chock full of new stuff for members of the fandom. We have a new audiobook version of Quidditch through the Ages which also has a dramatization of the 2014 Quidditch World Cup which is particularly entertaining. We have a new gameplay trailer… Read MoreDigging for Gold in the CG Cast List• Podcast Episode
Now that the trailer has come out and presented us with wonderful nuggets of canon and plenty of questions to chew over, I think it’s time to dig a little further for canon treasure in the cast list of the film. The complete list is published on IMDb, so… Read MoreTrailer for the Crimes of Grindelwald is out and it's, well, FANTASTIC!• Podcast Episode
The teaser trailer is out and it’s wonderful. We’re given glimpses of oh, so many new places and things — and some well-established things and places as well. First thoughts, in order: We’re back at Hogwarts! It’s great to see that lovely view down Loch Shiel again. Who is… Read MoreWhat I want to be building this summer• Podcast Episode
I’ve been a Lego fanatic since always. My favorite was the castle, with its drawbridge and towers. I built and rebuilt and redesigned that set over and over for years. You might say I have a thing about Lego and castles. Which means that this August is going to be… Read More🎙️ Episode 23: Fantastic Beasts and the Wait for the Next Movie• Podcast Episode
The week Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them came out, Lexicon Tech Wizard Nick Moline just so happened to be on a business trip. On the way home, he stopped in Texas and together Steve and Nick (along with Steve’s wife Mitzi) watched the movie together. After watching the film,… Read MoreWhere did the time go?• Podcast Episode
Most long-term Lexicon readers will be familiar with the infamous Missing 24 Hours problem. It was a very popular topic of discussion way back in the day. This mystery first came to light in 2001 when I was writing the original Harry Potter timeline (subsequently copied by Warner Bros. and Scholastic, which I… Read More4 Things the Harry Potter Films Got Right• Podcast Episode
Many of us fans like to complain about the Harry Potter films. Oh, we do so lovingly (for the most part), but we still complain. We wish that this or that scene had been included. We can't understand why they changed that particular thing when they could have just as well followed the book. We point out how they completely MISSED THE POINT OF BOOK THREE!!!
Deep breath. I'm okay.
But there are some moments in the films where they totally nailed it. There are moments where they managed to capture whole swaths of the story in one lovely visual. There are times when the actors just captured the characters so perfectly that we can't imagine the scene any other way, even if we know that it was different in the books.
Here are four of examples of what I'm talking about: Read MoreSix errors in the Harry Potter films that confuse fans• Podcast Episode
I love the Harry Potter films. I have dear friends who worked on them. I was on the set during the filming of Order of the Phoenix. David Heyman even told me that they used the Lexicon "every day" while they created the films. So don't mistake what I'm about to say for anything but loving criticism.
The films are nothing more than very expensive fan fiction. They're made-up stories closely based on the Harry Potter books, created by people who are massive Harry Potter fans and who care very deeply about "getting it right," but who, for one reason or another, changed a lot of things. Sometimes they changed things for very good reasons. Sometimes, though, they seem to have changed things for no particular reason at all. I can't explain it, but there you go.
However, for a lot of people, the films are Harry Potter. They've never read the books, or barely read them anyway. As far as they're concerned, Dementors attacked Harry and Dudley in an underpass below a highway. Snape died in a boathouse. And Harry fought Voldemort in an extended, violent duel at the end of the Battle of Hogwarts, punctuated by clever bon mots and death-defying falls from high places.
But oh well. I really don't care. At least they're Potter fans! The more the merrier! Just do me a favor ... don't send me any more emails telling me that I screwed up on the Lexicon when I write that: Read MoreWeird Canon Moments• Podcast Episode
Oh, of course there are a million things that I wish had been included in the films. But there are a few really weird things that I really would have loved to have seen included. Here are my top three Weird Canon Moments: Read More