With the excitement over the release of the new trailer for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the Central Florida Slug Club had a discussion and dissection of the trailer on our Facebook page. We wanted to share with you some of the things we noticed. Most of the information below is just speculation and not information from any official sources.

1. Could this be Tina and Queenie’s apartment? We see them magically putting away dishes earlier in the preview. The amount of personal items on the bookshelf and night stand make it seem like a home rather than a hotel. We think Newt and Jacob are staying here.

2. Notice the book Jacob is reading, “Cassandra and Her Cat Gustavus”. Diane Lewis pointed out the following: “We can further deduce that this is a book about magic since it is in the apartment of two witches. Cassandra in Greek mythology is a seer, cursed by Apollo that her prophecies would be true but no one would believe her. In the Harry Potter universe, Cassandra Trelawney is the great-great-grandmother of Sybil Trelawney, another prophetess no one believes. It is a safe bet that this book is about Cassandra, and apparently her cat Gustavus (although I can find no references to the cat either in mythology or the HP universe.) Do we see here another nod to a future Hogwarts professor?”

3.Could this shot of Newt working be his office in his suitcase?! It is Newt’s first visit to New York so I can’t imagine he has a working office there. It looks like his, all Hufflepuff and cozy. His journal sitting in a pile of papers. Notice the steep set of steps at the bottom right to the left of Jacob. How cool is this suitcase! We can’t wait to see further into all the animal habitats.

4. Could Newt be creating a potion to put in the meat to possibly knock out an escapee? Notice the two huge pieces of raw meat on the table in the previous shot, as well as what looks like Newt extracting juices from a plant in this shot. It looks like they are putting a plan into motion.

5. Could a Demiguise be blasting through a political dinner for Shaw? The Demiguise is listed as peaceful but is also listed as M.O.M. Classification XXXX – Dangerous. After further research we found out according to Harry Potter Wiki Shaw is running for American Senator and this is a rally for his supporters. A fan video of Fantastic Beasts filming captured a group of muggles shouting “We want a second Salem” and holding signs saying “No witchcraft in America”. As well as Shaw candidate posters. Though this seems odd, why aren’t they just using a memory charm on these people to protect the Statute of Secrecy?   Is it possible that this isn’t a creature attack at all?

6. Why are we seeing a creature that is not in the Fantastic Beasts book?  The group had some pretty strong feelings about the uncreativity of the name Swooping Evil. So why was the evil not in the book?  Maybe the textbook used in schools only has a portion of the creatures Newt has researched and found. Maybe it could only contains more common creatures. Probably not because the book has rare creatures like the Chimaera and Lethifold listed. Or could the Swooping Evil be extinct by the time he publishes the book? Though the Basilisk made it to the book and there was no known sighting for at least 400 years.  Either way, once the movie is released we can hope that a larger more detailed version of the textbook will be released with notes from Newt or even a version of his journal.

7. What is the Name of the New York Wizarding Newspaper? We took some guesses at the newspapers name only to find out later that MinaLima hashtagged on their Instagram #TheNewYorkGhost. We have an official name!!

All of the above was created by the members of the Central Florida Slug Club in a joint discussion. Thanks to Diane for the great stills of the preview and pointing out a large portion of the topics discussed above.

Let us know in the comments below what else you noticed! If you live in Central Florida or visit often feel free to join our Facebook group to join in on the discussions.

Melissa P.