The latest film in the series is set to be released in UK cinemas on the 8th April.

I mean this is certainly the year for Harry Potter fans – what with the some of the cast and production team reuniting for a special 20th anniversary special marking the anniversary of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone being released in cinemas and of course the upcoming release of Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore.

Now the title and the predominant focus of Jude Law in the trailer seems to suggest that there will be certainly more of a focus on Dumbledore’s background which will certainly excite all those who know bits and pieces from reading the books. But it also seems to suggest that it will on some level be delving deeper into Dumbledore’s relationship with Grindelwald (now being played by Mads Mikkelsen) – how this fits into the bigger picture of what has been building so far in the series remains to be seen, particularly given how the last film ended.

So what do we get from the trailer? Well as you would expect there is certainly plenty spectacular special effects on display as well as lots of action sequences that suggest that the series is continuing to take a dark turn in the way the original Harry Potter series did – with director David Yates (who has always done a great job of bringing the world of Harry Potter to life) at the helm I have got a really good feeling that this film will be one of the strongest of the series so far.

But there is of course plenty to look forward to elsewhere – such as the introduction of new characters to help in the fight against Grindelwald but also giving more prominence to characters established in the second film including the more solid involvement of Newt’s brother Theseus (Callum Turner) who I certainly felt could have been used more in the second film.

I will be interested to see how Mads Mikkelsen plays the role of Grindelwald – but from what I can see from the trailer he is a quietly menacing presence that will enhance the sense of danger that the world is in. Definitely an interesting addition to the cast.

If anything my main concern is the story itself – will it get unnecessarily complex that people will struggle to keep up with (there were a couple of elements that didn’t fully make sense to me in the first two films on first watching) or will it take a completely different direction that will undo what has been set already? i’m really hoping that it will actually make a few things clearer and we can then see how things that happened previously will help to uncover the rest of the story.

This being said – I’m still extremely excited to see these characters and this magical world explode back on to life on the big screen again!

By Emma Clarendon