New 'Fantastic Beasts' Sequel Photo Has 'Potter' Fans Ready For Young Dumbledore

Like Disney, who own Marvel's MCU and Star Wars, Warner Brothers also has two major name "franchise universes." The first is the DC Extended Universe, who's latest offering, Justice League, is currently getting clobbered by critics. The other is the Potterverse, and their five-part movie series (quintology?) that began with Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them. The next movie is out in November of 2018, which means it's time to start revving the hype machine. They did just that on Wednesday, Nov. 15 with a brand new Fantastic Beasts sequel photo hinting of the drama to come.

As fans might remember, the first Fantastic Beasts movie was originally introduced as a trilogy, focusing on the story of Newt Scamander, the famous Hufflepuff who wrote the textbook of the same name that all Hogwarts first years are supposed to study. Set in 1926, the year before his seminal text was published, the idea seemed to be that Scamander would travel to parts of the wizarding world we hadn't seen before, like America for the first one, and France rumored for the sequel. We'd also see how wizards lived in earlier times, before the technological divide really began to spring up between those with magic and muggles.

But it was all a fake out. Newt's story was simply a set up to introduce the real villain: Gellert Grindelwald, who Dumbledore would famously face off with in the 1940s and defeat. The trilogy would actually be five movies, building up to the first major Wizarding War that happened prior to Voldemort's rise.

With one year and one day left to go before the next movie opens, the Fantastic Beasts official Twitter sprang to life, teasing clues about what lies ahead, and promising more in the coming days. Check out the image above.

Everyone should recognize the wand on the left. It's one of the most famous wands in the world. Known as "The Elder Wand," it is one of the three "Deathly Hallows" — Magical items filled imbued with great powers. Supposedly, when one owns all three of the Deathly Hallows (including the wand, the Resurrection Stone and the Cloak of Invisibility), one is nearly unstoppable. But it's the Elder Wand, with it's ability to cast spells of great magnitude, that most wizards hunt for.

It was in the possession of Albus Dumbledore for nearly the entirety of the eight Harry Potter films, and turned out to be Voldemort's real end game by the conclusion of the series. (Too bad it was Draco Malfoy who had beaten Dumbledore in the duel, and then Harry Potter who had beaten Malfoy, making the Elder Wands' master Harry, not Voldemort.)

The wand on the right, on the other hand.... is one we've never seen.

Now, the assumption here is that said black wand with the gold pommel must be the evil wand, right? If the Elder Wand is Dumbledore's, then the other is the wand that belongs to Grindelwald, and this photo is a symbol that he and Dumbledore will be facing off very soon.

Except: no.

Stop and think about Dumbledore's history. Dumbledore never wanted the Elder Wand. It was Grindelwald who did. He got a hold of it sometime after he and Dumbledore's friendship ended, when he stole it from the wandmaker Gregorovitch in the early 1900s, years prior to the events of the first Fantastic Beasts movie.

So that's *not* Dumbledore's wand on the left. That's Grindelwald's wand. That wand will be his all the way through until the end of the series, when we come to 1945, when he and Dumbledore face off in a duel and Albus beats him, taking ownership of it.

So then....who's wand is that on the right?

Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them 2 will arrive in theaters on Nov. 16, 2018.