Newt and Leta: Zoe Kravitz Talks About Their “Complex Relationship”
By now, you’ve seen the evidence in Fantastic Beasts that some sort of relationship exists between Newt Scamander and Leta Lestrange. Newt keeps a picture of her in his Newtcase shed and we know Queenie has seen inside Newt’s memories, but the actress who portrayed Leta in the first of the five films is now telling us what she knows about the mysterious character.
Talking with Collider this week about her new HBO series Big Little Lies, the actress was also able to answer some questions about her role in the upcoming Fantastic Beasts sequels. While her answers seem to breed only more questions for fans wondering where those little bread crumbs from Queenie lead, we’re still excited to get whatever we can from Kravitz!
Although Kravitz didn’t spill any Lestrange family secrets, she did reveal a time frame for filming, saying,
. . . that [filming] starts in June or July, I think. It’s sometime in the summer. I’m very excited. The one day I was on set for that, and also for my audition process, being able to work with Eddie [Redmayne] and David [Yates] was incredible. The script was very under wraps, so even signing onto it, I hadn’t read the script. I just went off of who was involved, and J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter films, so I knew it was going to be incredible, especially with how involved J.K. is.
As far as who Leta and Newt might be to one another, if she’s gotten her hands on the next script yet, and how many of the sequels she may appear in, Kravitz had this to say:
I know nothing! I have an idea, based off of when I auditioned, but I know nothing. Even when I went to go do my chemistry read with Eddie, he was trying to help me piece together what was happening in the scene that we were reading. He doesn’t get to see anything either, so he was like, ‘I think based off of this line and this line, and what we shot here and here, this is what’s going on.’ We had to guess. It was funny to watch him, trying to piece it all together. I think there’s a few [films] ahead. The relationship between Leta and Newt Scamander is a complex relationship, so I think there will be a lot of time for that to grow and develop, which will be fun.
We’re thrilled to see what the future films will bring in regard to Leta and Newt’s past as well as how it plays into Newt’s future with Tina, whom we already know becomes his wife thanks to previously revealed information from J.K. Rowling.
What do you think about Leta and Newt? Were they once a couple of crazy kids in love while at Hogwarts? Perhaps they were simply friends, like Hermione and Harry. Drop us a line in the comments below and let us know your thoughts on this developing relationship!