It’s likely that had Harry Potter fans been consulted with a choice between a ninth Harry Potter film or a new franchise adapted from one of J.K. Rowling’s spin-off novels, the overwhelming consensus would favor more Potter. As it stands however, the upcoming arrival of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them has a very strong fanbase and in terms of box office receipts, the magical tale set 70 years prior to Harry Potter’s adventures is expected to score big.

As long as the same care that was put into bringing Rowling’s Harry Potter novels to life on the big screen has also been put into Fantastic Beasts, Potterheads tend to be an open minded and forgiving bunch. This is certainly not asking much at all and if the clips and trailers that we’ve seen are any indication, everything that fans of the Harry Potter franchise have grown to love appears to still be part of Fantastic Beasts in its own different but familiar way.

With the official release of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them almost upon us, the past couple weeks have offered different clips from the film in order to prime fans for the adventure that awaits them. The latest clip (which can be seen above) comes to us courtesy of CB and shows off a bit of wizard school rivalry. Upon facing Queenie Goldstein’s (Alison Sudol, Transparent) claim that American wizarding school Ilvermorny is the best in the world, Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) calmly replies that the best wizarding school is Hogwarts.

The clip is interesting because perhaps for the first time since trailers and clips began appearing online for the film, the issue of a rivalry not just between wizarding schools but also nations has been introduced. After his assertion that Hogwarts is the best wizarding school in the world, Goldstein sputters “Hogwash,” prompting a bemused grin from Scamander. For so long now, audiences have really only been extensively exposed to the pupils (both former and current) of Hogwarts. As a result, there’s something almost contentious about Goldstein’s claim that any school other than Hogwarts could be the best in the world. It also makes the prospect of Ilvermorny’s stature as a wizarding school that much more interesting. What will American wizards be like?

Certainly, there’s no reason to believe that American wizards will be any different from British ones. Audiences were treated to a taste of what wizards from other international schools could be like in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and for the most part, those pupils were no different than those from Hogwarts. However, an entire ocean separates England from America. It’s not inconceivable to imagine that there would be many different approaches to magic as well as its instruction. How deeply will the potential difference between wizards play into the Fantastic Beasts franchise if at all?

The easiest answer of course, is that we’ll all just have to wait and see. As previously mentioned, there isn’t much time left now until the release of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. There’s sure to be an ample amount of surprises along the way, making the prospect of this brand new Rowling franchise all the more exciting.

Source: CB

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