Jude Law Reflects on Dumbledore and Reveals Line He Wrote in “Fantastic Beasts”
Eddie Redmayne recently spoke about how he thinks fans have seen the last of Newt Scamander, except at Epic Universe. Now, Jude Law has reflected on his time as Professor Dumbledore in the Fantastic Beasts film series, likewise not giving fans much hope for any further films.
In an interview with Variety, Law discussed how unlikely it seems that he will return to play young Dumbledore, saying that the Fantastic Beasts film franchise is “certainly on hold.”
My guess would be that, now that they’re doing ‘Harry Potter’ as a TV show, they’ll probably put their energy into that. I certainly haven’t heard that there’s anything on the horizon.
Speaking about his knowledge of young Dumbledore prior to working on the films, Law said that after he read the Harry Potter books to his children, he felt like he understood Dumbledore.
He was absolutely the sort of heartbeat of those books. Or, rather, the spirit. Harry was the heartbeat. There was something in the heart of Dumbledore – there was something in the spirit of the man that I really liked.
Jude Law (Albus Dumbledore) and Dan Fogler (Jacob Kowalski) in “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore.”
Law then met with J.K. Rowling in 2017, when she gave him a rundown of the story arc she had in mind for the remaining Fantastic Beasts films, giving him “a pretty clear sense of where it was going to go.”
Jo Rowling always said to me that he saw himself as a monster because of the way he had behaved in the past and he was always trying to forgive himself, but I just always felt like he was a good, kind man, and it’s nice playing good, kind men.
“And that’s why he liked Newt,” Law mentioned, “because Newt took care of monsters.” Law explained that Dumbledore perceived himself as “unlovable” because of his actions with Grindelwald that led to his sister Ariana’s death.
I think he always felt guilty that he had been misled because he was in love. It followed him. He found himself to be unlovable because he trusted his heart.
Law also revealed that he actually wrote the line “The fact that everything didn’t go precisely to plan… was precisely the plan” for his character, stating he thought it was “very Dumbledore,” and it ended up making it into Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore.
Jude Law as Dumbledore.
Despite Dumbledore’s (many) flaws, Law enjoyed playing the iconic wizard because it also brought out something good in himself.
To play him and to really feel a sense of his extraordinary powers, I found a nice place in myself. I liked his heart, and I liked playing him because of that. I always enjoyed stepping in his shoes.
While Law’s comments on the Fantastic Beasts films don’t give us any more hope for the continuation of the franchise, it’s always interesting to dive deeper into Dumbledore’s background and to hear Law’s thoughts on playing this iconic character.
