A new poster for Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald has been released ahead of the Warner Bros. panel at San Diego Comic-Con, where a new trailer for the movie is also expected to drop. As expected, the poster has Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) front and center, flanked by Tina (Katherine Waterston), Queenie (Allison Sudol) and Jacob (Dan Fogler), with Jude Law as Dumbledore and Johnny Depp as Grindelwald also featured. But it’s not the film’s stars that have got fans talking; rather, the subtle additions to the poster that could tease the confirmation of a popular fan theory.

In a recent interview, Redmayne confirmed that not only is Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald darker than the first movie, it’s also more closely connected to the Harry Potter franchise. Of course, the two exist in the same universe, but Fantastic Beasts is set much earlier than Harry Potter (the first part took place in 1926, with the five-movie series set to end in 1945). However, it seems that J.K. Rowling is laying the foundations for what then happens in Harry Potter; not only will we see Hogwarts in The Crimes of Grindelwald, we might also see the creation of one of what will become Voldemort’s most powerful Horcruxes.

When the first trailer for Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald was released, a fan theory started circulating that Claudia Kim’s new character could become Nagini. Kim’s character doesn’t have a name other than Maledictus - a wizard that is born with a curse which means they’ll eventually turn into a beast - and resides in a traveling circus where she’s billed with a picture of a snake. Add in the fact that Kim has been wearing snakeskin leggings in the promotional images for the movie, it seems likely that, at the very least, she’s a snake. Now, a poster has further pointed at a Nagini connection.

Kim appears in the bottom corner of the poster, with Credence Barebone (Ezra Miller). Winding its way out of her image, is the body of a snake, which coils and weaves through the poster, coming to rest with its head and tail either side of the Deathly Hallows symbol. The snake also loops through Dumbledore and Grindelwald’s pictures, symbolically tying them all together. While this doesn’t confirm the Nagini theory, it’s added evidence that points towards the snake - currently one of the biggest players in Harry Potter mythology without a fleshed out backstory - having a part to play in Newt’s adventures.

If Nagini is a part of Fantastic Beasts, then it not only means she’ll be a much more significant figure in the Wizarding World with ties to Grindelwald, but actually opens up the possibility of the series taking on Tom Riddle and exploring his troubled past. He’s known to Dumbledore as early as 1938, and by 1942 he’s murdered his father and grandparents, all while still a student at Hogwarts; events well within the prequel timeline.

What’s unavoidable is that we’ll see more and more Harry Potter references as the Fantastic Beasts franchise develops; Rowling loves to drop subtle teasers about what’s to come.

Next: Fantastic Beasts 2: Every Update You Need To Know

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