UPDATE: April Fools! Jacob Tremblay isn’t down to play Voldemort in Fantastic Beasts 3. But should Tom Riddle appear in the sequel?
Room actor Jacob Tremblay has been cast in a “substantial” role as a young Voldemort in Fantastic Beasts 3. The next entry in the Harry Potter prequel series is expected to begin filming in fall 2019, following a production delay, though it’s supposedly still on track for a November 2020 release.
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald expanded the story’s links to the original Harry Potter saga, with Jude Law joining the cast as a young Dumbledore, Zoë Kravitz playing Newt Scamander’s old flame Leta Lestrange (a distant relative of Bellatrix Lestrange, the return of Fawkes the Phoenix, and even a young Professor McGonagall impressively managing to teach at Hogwarts years before she was canonically born.
Now the connections between the two series are about to get even stronger, with Harry Potter’s greatest nemesis entering the fray. The news of Tremblay joining the cast was announced in a press release, with producer Steve Kloves saying, “We are delighted to have a young talent like Jacob join the Wizarding World, and we can’t wait for fans to learn never-before-revealed details about Voldemort’s childhood.” Producer and screenwriter J.K. Rowling added, “This part of Tom Riddle’s life has been in my writing notes for twenty years.” The press release itself doesn’t offer details about exactly how young Voldemort will be incorporated into the story, but it does say that Tremblay’s role will be “substantial.”
12 year-old Tremblay has been one of the most sought-after young actors in Hollywood since his role in Oscar-winning drama Room, where he starred alongside Captain Marvel actress Brie Larson. Since then he’s had key roles in movies like The Book of Henry and The Predator, and can also be seen in an episode of the upcoming Twilight Zone reboot.
Tom Marvolo Riddle, the boy who would grow up to be Lord Voldemort, was born in the 1920s, and a child version of the character was played by Hero Fiennes-Tiffin (nephew of Ralph Fiennes, who played adult Voldemort) in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The Fantastic Beasts films will cover a span of time from the 1920s to Gellert Grindelwald’s eventual defeat in the 1940s, so this casting news makes it clear that Fantastic Beasts 3 will jump forward in time to the 1930s.
Perhaps even more exciting than the casting news itself are details from Deadline regarding the role that young Voldemort will play in Fantastic Beasts 3. According to this report, the young orphan will be recruited by Grindelwald in his campaign of wizarding revolution, and will be trained in the Dark Arts alongside Ezra Miller’s Aurelius Dumbledore. Grindelwald will also recruit other young wizards and witches whom he believes have potential, forming his own “evil Hogwarts” in his base of operations, Nurmengard Castle.
More: Fantastic Beasts 3: Release Date, Story Details & Every Update
Source: Warner Bros., Deadline
