'The Crimes of Grindelwald' makes a major Harry Potter canon blunder
Critics everywhere have slammed the latest Harry Potter spin-off, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, as there's an absurd amount of confounding plot crammed into the 134-minute film.
Yet, the film carries a problematic canonical oversight, too: Minerva McGonagall briefly appears as a young-adult wizarding instructor at Hogwarts in 1927. The trouble is, according to Harry Potter lore, she wouldn't have even been born at that point.
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(Pottermore, for those who might not know, is the online portal for all things Harry Potter and Wizarding World. It features original writing from creator J.K. Rowling that is recognized as official canon.)
As Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling reveals in the original series, the famously strict Professor McGonagall first started teaching at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in 1956, when she was a spry 21 years old.
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On Twitter, some have argued that this "Minerva McGonagall" may have actually been Professor McGonagall's witch mother. But this is almost certainly wrong. Mashable reviewed the original screenplay, which explicitly cites a "Minerva McGonagall" in the film. Minerva's mother was named "Isobel Ross," and later "Isobel McGonagall" after marrying the muggle Robert McGonagall.
Isobel, notably, was also never a professor at Hogwarts. Fans have been pointing all of this out for days, since the first details about Grindelwald started making their way online. Some see McGonagall's appearance as an error. Others think it's part of the plan, and there's more to be revealed.
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Rowling, who is credited for writing the Fantastic Beasts sequel script, couldn't slip this mistake past vigilant Potter fans. Perhaps such lapses won't occur in next installment of Fantastic Beasts, which this film largely existed to set up.
Rowling, who is very active on social media, hasn't yet weighed in on the issue of Professor McGonagall's age in The Crimes of Grindelwald.
Topics Harry Potter
Mark was the science editor at Mashable. After working as a ranger with the National Park Service, he started a reporting career after seeing the extraordinary value in educating people about the happenings on Earth, and beyond.
He's descended 2,500 feet into the ocean depths in search of the sixgill shark, ventured into the halls of top R&D laboratories, and interviewed some of the most fascinating scientists in the world.
