How Credence Sets Up Voldemort's Rise in 'Fantastic Beasts 2'

Future installments of the Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them franchise will feature Ezra Miller’s mysterious character Credence Barebone, who was responsible for the first film’s mayhem and murder.

At the end of Fantastic Beasts, the character vanished in a dark cloud, seemingly dead. His return in the second film was never guaranteed. He’s sure to bring more chaos, and his darkly vulnerable performance is one of the strongest in the cast. But he also brings the most logical connection to Voldemort.

Credence Barebone one of the few characters in Fantastic Beasts with no overly obvious connection to the Potter series. Grindelwald and Dumbledore — who will feature more prominently in future movies — both show up in the novels. Newt will write a book Harry and his classmates will read in the future. Queenie and Tina Goldstein are related to one of Harry’s classmates.

But Credence is as enigmatic as the Department of Mysteries. He can’t be Voldemort’s father, as he was a Muggle. But he could be Severus Snape’s grandfather.

Their shared questionable haircuts and morose dispositions aside, the timeline lines up, too. Snape’s mother Eileen Prince was born in the 1930s, while the first Fantastic Beasts film when Credence is a teen is in 1926. There isn’t much information about the Prince family, so Credence could easily change his last name.

Even if that turns out not to be the case, since the future films are set in Europe, Credence’s return is intriguing.

He could settle in London and remake his identity as Mr. Borgin or Mr. Burke, proprietors of the sinister Knockturn Alley Dark Magic shop that young Voldemort works for after he leaves Hogwarts. Or Credence could end up in the forests of Albania, which is where Voldemort goes after he tries to murder Harry and finds himself without a concrete body.

Voldemort aside, fresh on the heels of the internet chatter around Johnny Depp’s role in the franchise, Credence could be a lifesaver for the story. Thanks to Depp’s personal life — which involves domestic violence allegations — many Harry Potter fans are unhappy that he’ll play a large role in the next four installments of the series. Whether or not the allegations are true, the mere implication of it counters the themes of fighting oppression that the Potter stories stand for.

Ezra Miller’s Credence, on the other hand, embodies the themes both onscreen and behind the scenes. Offscreen, the actor identifies as queer. Onscreen Credence brings a sense of nuance into the plot in a different but equally compelling way.

He’s rather like Harry, but he’s not lucky enough to have figures like Dumbledore or Sirius Black or Molly Weasley in his life. While he doesn’t alleviate the real concerns Potter fans have about Depp, his presence certainly brings qualities that counters it.

The currently untitled sequel to Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them is scheduled for release on November 18, 2018.