Characters / Fantastic Beasts: Newt Scamander and Friends

Main Character Index | Newt Scamander and friends | Grindelwald's Army | New York City | Others | Magical CreaturesThe main protagonists of the Fantastic Beasts films.

Note that any spoilers regarding Foregone Conclusions from the Harry Potter books will be unmarked.

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In General

Queenie: You're one of us now.

"Don't worry, [Tina]'s gonna see you. And she'll see the four of us together, it'll just be like New York all over again!"

— Jacob Kowalski to Newt Scamander

Before he was a famous author, Newt Scamander was just a wizard with an interest in magical creatures, trying to get his fellow wizards to see them not as security risks that might expose their world to Muggles, but a wonderful part of it to be treasured and protected. Just before he submitted his book for publication, a fateful trip to New York would be the start of an exciting, dangerous life he never dreamed up and introduce him to people who would become his closest friends - his future wife Tina, her sister Queenie, and humble Muggle baker Jacob Kowalski.

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• Breaking the Fellowship: By the end of The Crimes of Grindelwald, the close-knit group that formed in New York is broken, with Queenie's defection to Grindelwald.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: They are very different from the Hogwarts trio (Harry, Ron, and Hermione) as you can possibly get:
  • They're a quartet instead of a trio, and have two ladies instead of one, also making it a Gender-Equal Ensemble. Two of them are also siblings while none of Harry and Co. are blood-related.
  • All of them are already adults and fully trained wizards (except Jacob, who by contrast is a trained soldier), while Harry & Friends were young magic students.
  • They will not be the ones to defeat Grindelwald unlike Harry and his friends defeating Voldemort; Albus Dumbledore will - though they will likely be a great help in bringing him down.
  • The trio while having the occasional hiccups, are very close friends and remain that way into adulthood; Newt and his friends are like that until Queenie defects to Grindelwald.
  • The trio's battle against Voldemort makes them living legends in adulthood. The quartet's battles against Grindelwald have been kept secret from the public via Ministry orders - the only thing the public knows for certain is that Newt helped capture Grindelwald in New York, and Newt will become famous for his magizoology books instead.
  • One of them is a non-wizard, while the Hogwarts trio is entirely made of wizards.
• Gender-Equal Ensemble: Two guys, two ladies.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: None of them is the kind to just sit by and let injustice slide, no matter what the official rules say.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Let's see: you have a British magizoologist who doesn't quite fit in, an Auror fallen in disgrace, a born Legilimens, and a Brooklyn Muggle baker.
• Two Girls to a Team: Two out of four, Tina and Queenie, are ladies.

Newt Scamander

Newton Artemis Fido "Newt" Scamander

"My philosophy is that worrying means you suffer twice."

Played by: Eddie Redmayne, Joshua Shea (as a Hogwarts student)
Voiced by: Mamoru Miyano (Japanese), Roger Pera (European Spanish), Irwin Daayán (Latin American Spanish), José Luis Piedra (Latin American Spanish, as a Hogwarts student), Théo Frilet (French,), Philippe Maia (Brazilian Portuguese)
Appears in: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them | Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald | Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore

"Albus, Lally said something earlier... about most of us being ultimately imperfect. But even if we make mistakes, terrible things... we can try to make things right. And that's what matters... trying."

Newt Scamander (born 1897) is a world-renowned magizoologist and author of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which later became required reading at Hogwarts, can be found in many a wizarding home, and has also been published in real life. Newt is the protagonist of this series, the first two of which are set in The Roaring '20s. In the first film, he travels from the U.K. to New York City after getting a tip about an abused animal from a mysterious friend, where his suitcase full of magic creatures is accidentally opened and he gets to know the American wizarding world and befriends Jacob and the Goldsteins. He re-appears in the second film, which focuses on his friendship with Dumbledore and antagonism with Grindelwald and in which he decides that he can't be neutral any longer after a tragic event in Paris. In the third film he’s tasked with leading a team on a dangerous mission to stop Grindelwald from getting elected as the president of the International Confederation of Wizards.

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• The Ace: Despite his awkward and shy attitude, Newt quickly establishes himself as the most competent of the four protagonists and that his title as Albus Dumbledore's favored student is well-deserved, being both a textbook and combat Ace. While the Ministry doesn't publicly acknowledge him as one, it's revealed that they would very much like to have him as one of this, repeatedly offering him the position of Auror and even blackmailing him for it. Repeatedly, in situations whenever the others would panic, Newt tends to have a knack for solving such occasions, along with performing impressive feats of magic, as if it was natural and with ease. Even Dumbledore picks him specifically to be his right-hand man against Grindelwald, and twice Newt has been able to help save the day and defy the greatest dark wizard of all time. Even without his war feats revealed, he is still technically this in the sense of beasts, as he is famous for being the foremost authority on magical creatures.
• All-Loving Hero: Newt sees the best in everybody and especially in every beast.
  Leta: You're too good, Newt. You never met a monster you couldn't love.
• All of the Other Reindeer: His interest and expertise in Magizoology makes him an odd-ball by wizarding standards. It got him expelled from Hogwarts, and makes him regarded as weird by the other wizards later.
• Allergic to Routine: Newt's worst fear (as represented by his boggart) is having a Soul-Crushing Desk Job, so he tries to avoid it by any means necessary, and when given a chance to lift his travel ban by joining his brother's department in the government, he flatly refuses with no hesitation.
• Ambiguous Situation: His education status. Rowling has offered different accounts of whether or not Newt was expelled. At first, it was stated he was expelled, but manuals and interviews regarding the first film stated the expulsion was never reinforced due to Albus's fierce argument.
• Animal Theme Naming: Taken to its most logical extreme given his Overly Long Name, but unusually enough for this series it isn't foreshadowing being an Animagus or a werewolf as much as it is playing off how many types of animals he works with. "Newt" is obvious enough, Artemis is the Greek goddess of the hunt and often associated with animals like deer, "Fido" is a common default name for a dog, and "Scamander" invokes a Salamander due to his first name also being based on an amphibian, as well as being the name of a river from myths to fit "Artemis".
• Annoying Younger Sibling: Averted. His brother, Theseus, sends him a letter and signs off with "wishing you well - wherever you are. ___ whatever beastly quests you are undertaking! Best regards, Theseus" implying that the two are close to one another. However, he is apparently regarded as this by the rest of the British Wizarding World, since his description as Theseus' little brother is delivered in unflattering tones. Theseus does love Newt and tries to do right by him, but also finds his inability to be anything but bluntly honest a little frustrating, especially when in situations when it would be better to not talk back — like at Newt's hearing for travel papers, and Newt's refusal to play nice puts him on Travers' list.
• The Archmage: While Downplayed compared to the likes of Dumbledore, Voldemort, and Grindelwald, he is clearly more of this than Harry. Regarded as the greatest expert on creatures ever, that title comes with not just excellent talent in Magizoology but also incredible magical knowledge and skill, along with also being a main contributor to the defeat of Grindelwald. Thus far, he has displayed incredible mastery of enchantments, his suitcase being one of a kind, and is clearly highly skilled at defending himself against dark forces, as displayed by him surviving and thwarting Grindelwald twice without needing the plot advantages that Harry had against Voldemort, along with being able to accomplish the feat of extracting and then fully containing an Obscurus, a feat that even Grindelwald found to be rather impressive. Though it is worth noting that, unlike Harry, he's an adult with a consistent education (Harry never had a 7th year and had arguably only two good DADA teachers - one of whom was evil).
• Ascended Extra: His name was referenced a few times in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, and his book Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them was published in Real Life; this film series has him as the star.
• Audience Surrogate: Longtime fans of the Harry Potter franchise relate the most to him, because he (like them) knows much of how the English wizarding world works but nothing about how it's different in America and France.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: As bitter as he is towards Leta and Theseus for their engagement, Leta especially for their past, he still agrees to be their best man, shows lingering feelings for Leta, defends her from her own self-hatred, and Leta's death ends up as the last straw that leads to him joining the war against Grindelwald, comforting Theseus in the process and reconciling.
• Badass Bookworm: Newt might be a shy, introverted, awkward, pacifistic nerd, but he regularly deals with the most dangerous magical creatures on the planet, and he's actually pretty good at duelling, being superior to the average Auror. Not many people can claim to have tangled with Gellert Grindewald and survived, but Newt has done so twice and even helped to defeat him the first time.
• Badass Longcoat: He is a very resourceful wizard, and wears a blue longcoat that's most likely to become his Iconic Outfit.
• Bad Liar: Newt does a terrible job getting past the customs officer at Staten Island, but gets through anyway. One suspects magic may have been involved. And nobody believes his "official" reason for travelling to the USA either.
• Bag of Holding: His magical suitcase contains an entire zoo.
• The Beastmaster: Some of the creatures he keeps in his suitcase come in handy in dangerous situations throughout the film, the Swooping Evil and the Zouyu in particular. Especially at the end of the first film, when the Swooping Evil is used to subdue Graves (revealed to be Grindelwald).
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: For all his bitterness towards Leta in the first film, it is clear by how bitterly he reacted to Queenie and how he sadly talked about her to Tina that he still has feelings for her deep down. Taken to higher levels in the second film, where Newt makes it clear even with having fallen for Tina, he still does love Leta and is by no means happy at all that she and Theseus are engaged, being quite tense around her yet showing some awkward happiness when she gets close to him and shows some feelings left for him and avoiding interacting with her and Theseus in their dinners out of clear bitterness. When she acknowledges their past romance after he comforts her, his expression is that of a mixture of solemn comfort and sadness.
• Better with Non-Human Company: He seems to feel better surrounded by his magical beasts than with fellow wizards and witches, but that doesn't mean he never interacts with the latter.
• Beware the Nice Ones:
  • Newt is shy, kind, loves animals and hates conflict and violence. He is also one of the foremost experts in dealing with extremely dangerous magical creatures in the Wizarding world- his later career includes important work dealing with Werewolves and Dragons- and likewise demonstrates that he is quite a powerful and skilled wizard, displaying widely advanced magical knowledge and surprising dueling skills that lets him handle most situations unrelated to creatures competently and is one of the very few who can survive a duel with Grindelwald. Even if he is obviously no match for him, as even aurors are easily beaten by the most powerful dark wizard, blocking even a few spells from him and getting away without being killed is already a pretty decent achievement.
  • He also worked with dragons in World War I and was so proficient at it that he was the only person they wouldn't try to eat. Want to make him angry?
• Breakout Character: Went from being barely mentioned in the Harry Potter books to the star of his own film series.
• Call-Forward: The manner and circumstances of his expulsion from Hogwarts is similar to that of Rubeus Hagrid's. Fortunately, unlike Hagrid, he got to keep his wand intact.
• Character Development: Newt’s arc over the first three movies is growing more assertive and taking more of a stand for what he believes in. Although he’s very meek and shy, by the end of the third movie he doesn’t hesitate to confront Grindelwald in front of the entire crowd about the zombie Qilin, even after he thinks his case has been destroyed. Theseus almost has to beg him to get involved in the war in the second and he only really goes to Paris to see Tina. By the third, he’s leading the team. He also is able to assert himself in a way he never did in the first two movies when he tries to find out where Theseus was sent when he was arrested. At the end, he tells Dumbledore that he’ll be there whenever the occasion calls for him to do it again.
• Chekhov's Gun: His faulty suitcase locks and the vial of Swooping Evil venom.
• Chick Magnet: He and Tina are mutually attracted to one another. His assistant in the second movie is shown and confirmed to have a crush on him. And it's implied that Leta may still harbor feelings for him.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Initially comes across as this at the start of the movie. He's absent-minded, impulsive and borderline ditzy. Every character is weirded out by his behaviour. We only see his true personality when he steps inside his suitcase.
• Collector of the Strange: His private menagerie of magical creatures — as Rowling points out in a DVD featurette for Crimes of Grindelwald, the zoo he has in the basement of his London townhouse is extremely illegal under Ministry law.
• Combat Pragmatist: Newt is very well versed in the various abilities of his menagerie and isn't above using them to gain an advantage in a fight.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character:
  • Harry Potter is given insanely high expectations as The Chosen One and is forced to live up to them. Harry's son Albus is an Inept Mage who loathes the fame and prestige his family's legacy has brought him. By contrast, Newt Scamander is born to a normal wizarding family and is forced to work his way through a crappy job at the Ministry before a stroke of luck allows him to Jump At The Call and pursue his dream job. Additionally, Newt has a genuine love for magizoology, while Harry (along with Ron) only ever took Care of Magical Creatures as a favour for Hagrid. Also, like Harry, Newt never finished his education at Hogwarts. However, while Harry chose not to return in order to pursue Voldemort's Horcruxes, Newt was expelled after either causing or taking the blame for a life-threatening incident involving a magical creature. Furthermore, Harry began the series as a child who knew nothing of magic and was the audience surrogate for the wizarding world and, aside from the brief distant epilogue, ended as a teenager and his ties with Voldemort began as an infant while Newt is already an adult when we first meet him and when he is brought into to the events of the series and he was born into a wizarding family and has known of magic his entire life. And while Harry's interactions with Voldemort and ties to him were part of a great story that would affect the entire wizarding community, Newt only gets involved in the events with Grindelwald by pure chance, due to being in New York on an unrelated errand, and he is largely caught in the middle of the greater battle between Grindelwald and Dumbledore against his will rather than being an active opponent or someone with grand ties to Grindelwald who, in sharp contrast to Voldemort and Harry's bitter mutual hatred, has no personal gripe with Newt other than some petty and misplaced jealousy.
  • He and Dumbledore have a much different relationship than Dumbledore and Harry did. Newt makes it clear from the moment they interact for the first time in the second movie that he knows Dumbledore was manipulating him during what happened in New York and demands answers and gets them. Harry never really caught onto this until after his death. They're also much closer in age and have moved from teacher/student to genuine friends and equals (including being on first name basis) while Dumbledore stayed Harry's grandfather figure until the end. Newt also knows some of his history from the beginning and doesn't judge him for the mistakes he's made or his brief relationship with Grindelwald and stays loyal and trusts him through thick and thin. He even has to convince Theseus that he's worth trusting in the third movie. The revelations about his past shake Harry to his core and it takes him almost a whole year to get the point of understanding that Newt is as at from the jump.
  • Apparently due to having much greater experience on the field of battle and being well-educated either due to Dumbledore taking it into himself to complete his training or the expulsion was revoked by Albus's insistence, Newt has considerably greater knowledge of magic with more skills than Harry ever displayed and relies more on finesse and technical magic rather than Harry's preference for powerful and practical but simple spells.
  • Harry is an only child (although obviously not by choice since he was a toddler when his parents were murdered) and Newt has a brother. Also Harry’s wife is the youngest and only girl out of seven kids whereas Newt’s wife is the older sister out of only two kids.
  • To Hagrid. They're both more comfortable around magical creatures than people, are experts in magizoology, and were expelled from Hogwarts for magical beast incidents that weren't actually their own fault but someone else's. There is one key difference however, Hagrid's love for creatures blinds him to the more dangerous ones and he fruitlessly tries to tame things like giant spiders and dragons. Newt however knows which creatures are dangerous and are impossible to tame; nothing in his personal menagerie is inherently dangerous, and when they escape they make sure to get away from humans as much as possible.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Say what you will about how the Ministry of Magic and others treat him - the fact is that the Ministry has resorted to attempted blackmail in order to make Newt an Auror and send him after Credence... and he's Dumbledore's hand-picked man to face Grindelwald. No matter how you slice it... Newt Scamander is NOT someone to be taken at face value.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Demonstrating exactly why he is famous for being a favorite student of Albus Dumbledore and the best magizoologist of his time, thus far Newt has been able to defeat anyone who tries to mess with him in this manner, apart from of course Grindelwald himself. In the first film, he defeats 3 executioners without his wand in a matter of moments and when he has gotten his hands on a wand, he wins another three-on-one fight with MACUSA Aurors near-instantly. In the second film, he nonchalantly takes down Stebbins with a single wind spell.
• Dirt Forcefield: He constantly handles various creatures and chemicals, makes a mess of places like zoos and jewelry stores and even rolls around in the snow at one point, yet he miraculously never has a speck of dirt on him. Justified, as there ARE spells that protect against dirt and water, such as the Impervius spell.
• Doctor Whomage: Newt shares quite a few similarities with the Eleventh Doctor to qualify: Similar haircut and clothes, has a Cloudcuckoolander personality, can't stand still and his briefcase he always takes with him is Bigger on the Inside, having an entire natural park where he keeps and cares the "fantastic beasts" he discovers and protects from muggles and hunters.
• Domain Holder: Creates and manages Pocket Dimension environments within his suitcase.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Despite helping capture Grindelwald in the first film and then becoming a celebrated author, he's still not respected by the Ministry of Magic, who dismiss his expertise in creatures and try to bribe him into becoming an auror like his big brother in exchange for travel papers — though the latter, at least, is an implicit acknowledgement of his combat skills. It seems that whatever respect they may hold for him is overshadowed by their extreme annoyance at his disregard for most forms of authority, especially theirs.
• Experienced Protagonist: In contrast to Harry, Newt is already an adult wizard adept at magic and an expert in the care of magical creatures.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • For all his love for magical creatures, his book is very explicit and clear when it comes to handling creatures that cannot be tamed and must be neutralized.
  • Newt has and will never even consider the idea of using his creatures or his own abilities for murder and slaughter or even getting back on those who looked down on him. The mere idea of this is enough to make him show unusual anger towards Grindelwald disguised as Graves.
  • No matter how desperate he is to regain the right to internationally travel, Newt will not stoop so low as to be willing to hunt a troubled child, as the Ministry find out when he refused to hunt Credence in exchange for regaining his right to travel internationally.
  • Despite being desperate for Tina's hand in romance and his bitterness over his failed romance with Leta, Newt's reaction to Queenie's shameless and casual enchantment of Jacob is that of genuine outrage over the idea of forcing him to get married when he doesn't want to. He refused to even consider that idea even in the face of Tina's bitterness and cold attitude, sticking true to his desire to earn Tina's love fairly.
• Eyes Always Averted: He prefers the company of his magical beasts to humans, which is pretty easy to tell considering he never makes eye contact and often stares straight down to avoid looking at anyone. One of the only times he manages eye contact is at the end of the movie, when he defiantly looks straight into the main villain's eyes as they are defeated.
• Fish out of Water: Newt is completely foreign to American wizardry and gets himself in trouble for using magic more openly than American law allows.
• Fluffy Tamer: He captures, tames, and takes care of various rare magical beasts, no matter how bizarre-looking or imposing they may be.
• Foregone Conclusion: He and Tina are married in the present day but not together (yet) in the films so somewhere along the way they are going to get married.
• Friend to All Living Things: He decided to dedicate his life to the study and protection of magical creatures. This is best shown in how he talks to Picket like a small human child, rather than a non-human being. This also doesn't just apply to magical animals, given his reaction to seeing a lion walking down the streets of New York, and trying to retrieve his wand from a monkey. And, awkward though he is around people, he genuinely cares about them, too, such that his concern at the end is trying to protect and save the Obscurial.
• Gender-Blender Name: "Artemis" is a goddess in Greek mythology, though to be fair, the name itself is gender-neutral.
• Graceful in Their Element: Although he's mostly nervous and introverted around other people, once he's surrounded by animals he's confident and talkative.
• The Greatest Story Never Told: To the Wizarding World, Newt is merely a famous author and the expert on magical creatures, which is true. But he was also a great asset to Albus Dumbledore in taking down Grindelwald... and the world never knew until now, as for unknown reasons the Ministry has had all the information classified save for their first encounter in New York.
• The Hero: Newt is the central character of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and follows in the tradition of protagonists whose importance is justified by his compassion for those who are not like him. This compassion easily endears Newt to the audience, since he treats non-magical people (who most audience members are) like equals while the wizards around him on both continents tend to dismiss them.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: He was expelled from Hogwarts for "endangering human life" with a beast; In truth Leta Lestrange was responsible, Newt just took the blame for it because he was in love with her. He managed to keep his wand, but the only initial job he could find was working in a dead-end menial Ministry job at the House Elf Relocation Office. His reputation is restored after he captures Grindelwald at the end of the first film... but the Ministry bans him from leaving the country because of the chaos his beasts were blamed for in New York (even after it was proven the vast majority of the damage was done by the Obscurus).
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: His opinion of both wizards and Muggles. However, it turns out that he dearly wants to form personal connections.
• Hufflepuff House: Averted. He's the first main character in the Harry Potter franchise to have been sorted into Hufflepuff.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Given his personality, he has an understandably hard time making friends, which is why he opts to take Jacob on as his companion and why he's been unable to get over his falling-out with Leta Lestrange, his sole schoolmate acquaintance.
• Impossibly Cool Clothes: Wears a snazzy blue coat on top of a suitcoat on top of a vest, which he sometimes accessorizes with a bowtie or a scarf (which is actually his Hufflepuff scarf from Hogwarts). Especially stands out whenever he's in a crowd, wherein other people wear shades of black or brown. This, coupled with his tall and slender frame, led to a lot of reviewers commenting that he looks like a runway model.
  • Eddie Redmayne actually was a fashion model when he was younger.
• In Touch with His Feminine Side: Highly emotional and overly-attached to his animals and friends. He's the opposite of aggressive: shy, with the tendency to bite his lip and avoid eye contact, getting flustered easily. He's very nurturing toward his beasts, even referring to himself as their mummy.
• Jumped at the Call: Newt hated his first Ministry job at House-Elf Relocation, and relished the chance to be paid to travel the world and research magical creatures.
• Killer Yo-Yo: With the exception of his obvious Magic Wand, he tends toward using his Swooping Evil in combat.
• Love Makes You Stupid: Leta was the one who endangered human life with a beast at Hogwarts, not Newt. He just took the blame because he was in love with her. He seems to have realized how stupid this was as it left him very bitter in adult life.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Both his nickname of Newt and his last name Scamander bring to mind newts and salamanders, both creatures known for their classical associations with witchcraft and wizardry as well as generally being seen as repulsive despite their relatively docile natures. It would be fitting that a man with that name is not only a Friend to All Living Things (no matter how disturbing or deadly they may be), but is also a fairly pleasant and affable person who wants friends despite being a shy and closeted man when dealing with others. Also, Scamander is the name of a river god in Greek mythology.
  • Newt Scamander says Tina's eyes are like fire in dark water, an effect he's only ever seen in salamanders; Rowling states that they end up married, likely giving Tina the last name of Scamander, too.
  • Newt is not very well liked, adores magical creatures, and hates violence; his acclaimed "war hero" brother is named after Theseus, whose most well-known act is killing the Minotaur, a dangerous being that's partially human like the two Obscurials that Newt would have tried to save.
  • Artemis is a goddess in Greek mythology who could tame wild animals.
• The Medic: He knows what has to be used to heal wounds inflicted by magical animals.
• Messy Hair: Sports red-brown locks that hang low over his eyes.
• Minored in Ass-Kicking: Made even more impressive by never finishing his education at Hogwarts, being the magical Steve Irwin means he's both very good at potions and surprisingly competent at combat.
• My Greatest Failure: His break-up with Leta Lestrange and his failure to save the life of a Sudanese girl after exorcising her Obscurus.
• Nice Guy: He's socially awkward but affable, and very concerned by the protection of magical creatures, especially those that are nearly extinct. He also does his best to recapture his escaped creatures and repair the damages they caused. Naturally, he was sorted into Hufflepuff during his time at Hogwarts.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Newt's lax security with his suitcase causes some of his creatures to escape. It gets worse with an involuntary Satchel Switcheroo.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Beneath Newt's meek and awkward personality, he is much more clever and sharper than anyone would believe at first glance. This smarts has helped him save the day during both films.
  • He is the only one to deduce that Grindelwald was disguised as Graves and just pretended to get angry without showing signs of suspecting his true identity before then revealing that he had figured it out ever since their conversation to reveal it. All of them, including Grindelwald himself, was surprised that he knew. He again manages to get one on Grindelwald by stealing his Blood Pact with Dumbledore using his Niffler while taking advantage of when he was kneeling to martyr a young girl, and goes as far as to make it sound easy by simply stating that Grindelwald did not understand or expect the simple things to be effective.
  • Unlike Harry, he is quick to realize Dumbledore's manipulations and while he lets the British Ministry of Magic believe it wasn't true, when with Dumbledore, he makes it clear Dumbledore did not trick him. He also clearly picks up on Dumbledore stating that he can't move against Grindelwald from his words, as he never stated that he didn't want to move against Grindelwald, and the moment he lays his eyes on the Blood Pact, Newt immediately deduces Dumbledore was the one who make the pact with Grindelwald.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: His full name is Newton Artemis Fido Scamander, but he's only referred to as "Newt".
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • Newt, who has a hard time even looking people he likes directly in the eye, looks Grindelwald in the eyes as he passes. Also, when talking to Credence in his Obscurial form, he looks directly at him.
  • Despite his tendency to avoid physical contact, and especially the way he keeps his arms straight along his torso when hugged against his will, he gently touches Tina's face before leaving New York at the end of the first film and hugs a mourning Theseus after Leta's death in the second film. When he sees Jacob for the first time in several years in the third, he runs and gives him a hug.
• Oral Fixation: Newt has a tendency to put his wand between his teeth whenever his hands are full.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Before his book became mandatory reading for English wizarding schoolchildren, Newt lived in the shadow of his older brother, a respected war hero.
• Psychic Block Defence: Played for laughs: Newt is partially immune to Queenie's mind reading abilities... because of his accent.
• Recognition Failure: When Newt's last name is mentioned during the international wizards meeting at MACUSA, a few people mistake him for his older brother, who is a renowned Auror.
• Saved by Canon: As he and Tina later get married, make at least one baby and are still alive as of 2017, they are among the few (excluding Grindelwald, Dumbledore, Nagini, and Aberforth) who have to survive the film series.
• Science Hero: A heroic zoologist who seemingly knows more about magical creatures than anyone else in the world.
• Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: In Crimes of Grindelwald, the Ministry tries to bribe Newt into finding and killing Credence for them in exchange for travel papers. Newt categorically refuses.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Newt does what he feels is right, and has no problem ignoring or circumventing the law to do it. This lands him in hot water with the Ministry, who recognize his talent but don't like how he applies it.
• Selective Obliviousness: His Hagrid-like love of magical creatures leads him to repeatedly declare that the creatures in his suitcase aren't dangerous. The first half of the movie is spent rounding up said creatures as they cause destruction and mayhem across New York City. Yes, said escaped creatures are found away from any humans and they mostly destroy property (which can be easily be repaired by magic) than human life, but this doesn't change the fact that they very much can be dangerous under the right circumstances. Indeed when Newt shows them off to Jacob, they act quite docile. His book is very explicit which creatures are too dangerous or impossible to be tamed.
• Seen It All:
  • Hidden by Newt's awkwardness and meek attitude is that of a man who used to be the protégé of Albus Dumbledore and has been around since World War I, where he had to deal with dragons, and has traveled around the world and dealt with some of the most dangerous beasts in the world, meaning he has had plenty of dangerous experiences and thus isn't particularly fazed by outcomes that may strike fear into others.
  • He's able to quickly identify that an Obscurus is behind the attacks on New York while other people believed it to be the work of a beast and Newt even was not so surprised that Credence was the Obscurial, just commenting on how it meant Credence had such magical power as to survive longer than other Obscurials.
  • His reaction to Grindelwald's vision of World War II is that of a careful and uneasy expression rather than the terrified and awed expressions of the others. Having fought in the previous World War and dealt with the wizarding world version sure helped him with that. Not even Jacob, another veteran of World War I, came close to taking it as well as Newt did.
• Slave Liberation: He rescues rare or endangered magical beasts from abuse, poachers and illegal trade throughout the world.
• Stiff Upper Lip: Combined with his niceness, Newt tries not to let tension or conflict bother him.
  Newt: My philosophy is that worrying means you suffer twice.
• Superior Successor: An inverted case. Newt, as a fully seasoned and experienced wizard in stark contrast to the trio, is shown to exceed them all. His enchantments are far more elaborate and stronger than Hermione's and his knowledge and skill definitely exceed hers. He can duel considerably better than Harry does, being able to take down multiple opponents at once while Harry would struggle and even tangle with Grindelwald in a straight duel without having to rely on the advantages that Harry uses in his scuffle with Voldemort. And finally for all his awkward attitude, Newt is even sharper and smarter than Harry is and probably Hermione too, as he has the experience and intelligence to quickly make plans on the fly and is sharp enough to see through things that had fooled the trio, including deducing Dumbledore's manipulation.
• Supporting Protagonist: Newt is the protagonist of the series but he is not the one who ultimately takes down the Big Bad. Essentially, Dumbledore and Grindelwald are the main characters but we are seeing their story unfold through his eyes. Although that doesn’t mean that he is a passive, non-important, or non-dynamic character.
• Talking the Monster to Death: Tries this with Credence and might have succeeded if it weren't for the MACUSA Aurors.
• Teacher's Pet: Albus Dumbledore was very fond of him when he was at Hogwarts, to the point that he tried to stop his expulsion from Hogwarts.
• Tender Tears: Usually when his animals (or friends) are being taken away.
• Tranquil Fury: A trait that he shares with his mentor, when he is genuinely driven to anger, Newt does not go screaming, but will find other more chilling ways to make his fury clear.
  • When he is at the mercy of Percival Graves and accused of supporting Grindelwald, Newt gets angry enough at the idea that he would support the greatest dark wizard of the time to coldly declare that he is not one of Grindelwald's fanatics before glaring at Graves to make his feelings on the matter very clear. Note that, at this point, Newt has probably already figured out that Graves is Grindelwald in disguise, yet he still finds it outrageous enough to get furious. And when the innocent Tina is about to be executed as well, Newt is clearly fuming as she is ready to be dissolved into the dark matter but remains calm and resorts to beating them up pretty good while handcuffed, the violence making it clear beneath his composure, he is quite furious.
  • The second film has numerous reasons for him to be in a foul mood and while he is still quite a nice guy and calm most of the time, he demonstrates more and more tempered anger. Leta's repeated desire to rebuild their friendship while having been engaged to Theseus makes him clearly irritated but he restrains himself and just non-aggressively but coldly denies her and makes it clear he has no inclination or intention to be particularly nice towards her or Theseus. Then he is offered the chance to go after Credence and Newt is more visibly furious and the moment he realizes Grimmson would be the one sent after Credence, he slips once by angrily referring to the beast hunter before slamming the door and leaving. Finally, when he realizes that Jacob has been enchanted by Queenie against his will and made to marry her, his thoughts and glare makes his outrage clear even though outwardly he is calm and when he is about to remove the enchantment, he makes it clear he will go through Queenie if he has to, intimidating her enough to back down rather than mess with Albus Dumbledore's protégé. Although only brief, he is clearly far from being happy when he realizes Jacob is in fact against the marriage and gives her yet another glare.
• Weak, but Skilled: Downplayed and more like an Informed Flaw. In one the behind the scenes books, Rowling states that Newt isn't really that great of a wizard, which is why the habitats in his suitcase are mere flaps, instead of being more elaborate and immersive. Newt's preference also appears to be a specialized mixture of excellent magical skill and applications of his technical prowess rather than relying on raw strength. He is clearly very well-versed and knowledgeable in magic beyond just beasts, but primarily Newt's most impressive feats were attributed to his usage of creatures. He gives the impression of being less reliant on raw power than Harry was, instead focusing primarily on skill, and he generally displays more impressive feats, due to being way more skilled, but is clearly outclassed whenever Harry starts tapping into his inner powers of love. That said, given that the films pit him in a serious magical duel with only Grindelwald, who is obviously far above anyone else but Dumbledore, it's more of Newt being way out of his depth, especially as he has none of Harry's advantages against Voldemort. The difference between his duels with Grindelwald and Harry's fights with Voldemort clearly display itself: While Harry can barely even fight Voldemort before he gets the power boost needed, Newt has no need for anything but his natural skill and power to fight Grindelwald better than almost anyone else seen. He's also quite capable of taking down groups of wizards and witches on his own right in a way that makes Harry's approach look amateuristic, if his displays while fighting off MACUSA's aurors and Grindelwald's followers are of any evidence. Indeed, outside battles, his feats such as creating as big of a suitcase as it was and lifting a love enchantment normally easily puts him at another level in terms of knowledge compared to Hermione, another similarly skill-reliant individual. Indeed, the Ministry even went as far as to be willing to send him against Credence, who is infamous for being the most prominent example of Unskilled, but Strong in the series, believing that while Credence is doubtlessly far more powerful, Newt's excellent skill and own decent raw power would give him a good chance at killing him; even Theseus is fully confident Newt can do it. Perhaps to best sum it up, Newt is a powerful wizard and while his raw strength falls short compared to juggernauts and super-powerful individuals like Dumbledore, Grindelwald, Voldemort, Credence, and even Harry when he is using the Power of Love, he can supplement his decent level of magical power with his knowledge and skills to handle himself better than the protagonists of the old series can.
• Wizards Live Longer: He’s still alive despite being in his 120s.
• The Worf Effect: Although less so than Harry, since Newt has only been seen thus far tangling really seriously in duels with Grindelwald, tellingly he ends up being summarily handled and that's after he's repeatedly displayed he's a legitimate badass, even though he fares better than anyone but naturally Albus could have, displaying just how overwhelmingly powerful Grindelwald is. Likewise, to display just how powerful Credence has become after 5 years of training, he easily rips through Newt's Shield Charm, which later on displays just how much stronger Albus is as his regular Shield Charms alone can easily succeed where Newt failed and he ends up taking Credence down without breaking a sweat while Newt didn't even try, although to be fair, he was outnumbered and Grindelwald's followers were attacking him mercilessly while he has to protect the Qilin.

Tina Goldstein

Porpentina Esther "Tina" Goldstein (later Scamander)

On foreign assignment.

Played by: Katherine Waterston
Voiced by: Shizuka Itō (Japanese), Gloria Cano (European Spanish), Betzabé Jara (Latin American Spanish), Pascale Chemin (French), Mabel Cezar (Brazilian Portuguese)
Appears in: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them | Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald | Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore

"Mr. Scamander, do you know anything about the wizarding community in America? We don't like things loose."

An American introverted witch (born 1901) from Chelsea, MACUSA employee and former Auror who quite literally runs into Newt Scamander after his arrival in New York City in 1926. In the second film, she's been reinstated as an Auror and heads off to Paris to find Credence. She would eventually marry Newt and move to the United Kingdom. They would also have at least one baby together.

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• '20s Bob Haircut: Since the first two movies are set in The Roaring '20s, Tina has a period-contemporary haircut.
• Action Girl: While she is no longer an Auror, she still gets into action, especially following Newt's schemes in New York. This continues into Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, which has her using magic and kicking ass once more.
• Affectionate Nickname: Queenie nicknames her "Teeny".
• Ambiguously Jewish: The name "Goldstein" is common among Ashkenazim and she lives in New York City, which already had a large Ashkenazi population in the 1920s. Add to that her second name, "Esther".
• Animal Theme Naming: Her name comes from porpentine which is an archaic word for porcupine.
• Badass Longcoat: Tina wears a nice leather coat after being reinstated as an Auror, as seen in The Crimes of Grindelwald.
• Beware the Nice Ones: At first, she seems like a somewhat incompetent MACUSA officer who was an Auror who got Reassigned to Antarctica due to said incompetence and is merely helping Newt out of a combination of her good nature and bad luck. Turns out she's arrested about half of the criminals seen in the Blind Pig and is capable of trading blows, at least for a moment, with Grindelwald, who was shortly afterwards revealed to be a literal One-Man Army—and, if the movie depiction of him stealing it as a young man holds, may have been the master of the freaking Elder Wand at the time.
• Brainy Brunette: Queenie describes her as the "brain" of the family.
• By-the-Book Cop: She's this at first in the film when arresting Scamander for the trouble his escaped creatures caused in the No-Maj world, and for not wiping Jacob's memory.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: When Tina mistakenly believes that Newt is engaged to Leta in the second film, she is cold towards them when they meet up again before angrily asking if he is engaged.
• Conveniently an Orphan: The Goldstein sisters' parents died when they were very young, leaving the both of them to raise themselves.
• Cool Big Sis: Serves as one to Queenie, even if she's stern and more level-headed than the happy-go-lucky younger sibling.
• Cowboy Cop: Even after being kicked out of the Aurors, she keeps tabs on the New Salemites.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: She's constantly irritated with Newt for bringing his magical creatures to New York and for his opinions on No-Maj interactions. She warms up to him, especially after escaping execution at the hands of MACUSA and seeing how much he dearly loves the creatures and doesn't want them hurt.
• Demoted to Extra: Only has a brief cameo towards the end in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore.
• Laugh of Love: She tends to laugh when she's with Newt, after she eventually warms up to him, particularly when he offers to give her a copy of his guidebook in person at the end of the film. The introduction to the modern edition of his book reveals that she's now his wife.
• Mama Bear: Tina helps Newt try and calm down Obscurus Credence in the ending, and the whole reason she got demoted is because she attacked Mary Lou Barebone when she was abusing him.
• Meaningful Name: Tina's full first name, Porpentina, comes from the world porpentine, an old-fashioned word for porcupine. This alludes to her prickly personality and matches the animal-themed nature of her future husband's name.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: She lies to Queenie about being in Paris on assignment, when she's actually there off the books. So when Queenie arrives and can't find her, it doesn't take much for Grindelwald's followers to prey on her.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: She's called Tina (or Teeny by her sister), never Porpentina, her full first name (which isn't too surprising).
• Please Put Some Clothes On: A non-romantic version to her sister, when she brings Newt and Jacob to their room and they stumble upon Queenie in her lingerie.
• Rank Up: She's promoted to Auror again following the arrest of Graves, who's revealed to be Grindelwald, at the end of the film. In the third movie, she's promoted to head of the Auror office, preventing her from taking part in the main plot.
• Reassigned to Antarctica: She was an Auror, but was reassigned to the Wand Permit office after using magic to protect Credence from his abusive mother, violating the Statute of Secrecy.
• Saved by Canon: As she and Newt later get married, make at least one baby and are still alive as of 2017, the two are the only ones (excluding Dumbledore and Grindelwald) who have to survive the film series.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Before the events of the film, she breaks the rule against using magic in front of No-Majs to protect Credence Barebone from his adoptive mother's abuse.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Like most sibling relationships in the franchise, she and Queenie are very different. Tina's the uptight serious career girl sister, Queenie's the bubbly carefree domestic sister. However, they’re very close and have the healthiest sibling relationship in the franchise outside of the various Weasleys.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Tina is the Tomboy and Action Girl of the family, being an Auror, and loves to wear trousers, while her younger sister Queenie is much more feminine. That said, Tina is much more obsessed with following the rules, while Queenie has a huge rebellious streak. This eventually causes a rift when Queenie carries on her relationship with Jacob, despite it being illegal under MACUSA. Tina doesn't turn her sister in, but she does try to talk her out it, which Queenie doesn't like.
• Tsundere: Her relationship with Newt in a nutshell, especially in the second film where 1.) she's mad at him for insulting her profession in a letter and 2.) under the impression he's engaged to Leta. It's easy to tell when she's mad at Newt as she acts aloof and makes a point of addressing him as Mr. Scamander even when he calls her Tina. She's softens up considerably when Newt tells her that Leta is engaged to his brother and it was just some tabloid magazine that made a mistake.
• Wizards Live Longer: Pushing 120 and still alive as of 2017.

Queenie Goldstein

Queenie Goldstein

"I just want what everyone else has, that's all."

Played by: Alison Sudol
Voiced by: Aya Endo (Japanese), Catherina Martínez (European Spanish), Adriana Casas (Latin American Spanish), Marie Diot (French), Evie Saide (Brazilian Portuguese), Natalya Denysenko (Ukrainian)
Appears in: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them | Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald | Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore

"Aw, don't worry, honey. Most guys think what you was thinking, first time they see me."

An American witch (born 1903) from Chelsea, and Tina's sister. She works as a low rank secretary at MACUSA when we meet her in New York. Queenie has a natural affinity for legilimency but the power is something of a curse because it makes her an outcast and leads to a Sanity Slippage in the second film.

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• All Take and No Give: Tragically what her relationship with Jacob devolves into, despite her observation on that very subject about Leta and Newt. They love each other, but under MACUSA law they can't marry. Jacob decides it's best to keep their relationship hidden and unofficial, rather than see Queenie imprisoned. But Queenie, refusing to see reason, goes so far as to enchant him and drag him to London to get married in Europe where it's legal. It only gets worse from there.
• Almighty Janitor: She's relatively low on the ranks at work, but she's very smart, very gifted, and, you know, a friggin' mind-reader. She would make a skilled Auror like her sister, but she just can't be bothered to obey the rules, so she works as a secretary instead. Doesn't stop her from using all three to her advantage anyway.
• Ambiguously Jewish: The name "Goldstein" is common among Ashkenazim and she lives in New York City, which already had a large Ashkenazi population in the 1920s.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Queenie senses Tina and Newt are in danger. What does she do? She screws the rules, takes their no-maj friend and breaks into the office belonging to Grindelwald. She may not be the career girl, but she is far from stupid.
• Blessed with Suck: Being born with such a natural gift for legilimency has its downsides because she can't really turn it off. People don't trust her, it's implied it's why she has such a menial job, and leads to her Sanity Slippage in the second movie. When she gets lost in Paris, she quickly gets overwhelmed and it ultimately leads her into the arms of Mr. Emotional Manipulator himself (i.e. Grindelwald).
• Butt-Monkey: At work, Queenie says she spends most of her time "making coffee or unjinxing the john," menial, unglamorous tasks.
• Conveniently an Orphan: The Goldstein sisters' parents died when they were very young, leaving the both of them to raise themselves.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: She initially seems a bubbly and airheaded Dumb Blonde, but her Indy Ploy managed to extract her sister Tina, Newt, and Jacob, as well as Newt's briefcase, from their predicament in MACUSA headquarters, using a combination of dirty blackmailing, breaking and entering, and Obfuscating Stupidity.
• Defensive Failure: Both times she tries to defend herself in the second film, she fails miserably: Newt draws his wand and makes it clear he will get past her if needed to be to get to Jacob and realizing she just pissed off the protege of the greatest wizard alive and someone who captured Grindelwald, she wisely backs off. Then she pulls her wand on Grindelwald of all people. It takes only moments of a speech before he is able to get close to her and take the wand out of her hand. Not that she could have possibly done anything to Grindelwald either anyway, but still...
• Dirty Mind-Reading: Reading what men think of her right in their minds doesn't seem to bother her.
• Dumb Blonde: Averted. She seems like one, but she's very intelligent and gifted. It's mainly an act to disarm people.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: While the series isn't quite over yet, Secrets of Dumbledore sees her leave Grindelwald behind and she gets back together with Jacob, and the two even get married at the end of the movie.
• The Empath: She's a natural Legilimens, so reading minds and getting a feel for people's thoughts and memories comes naturally to her.
• Everyone Loves Blondes: Jacob is not the first man whose head is turned by Queenie's beauty and overall niceness.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: Queenie’s hair is significantly lighter in the third movie to signify the passage of time and her role in Grindelwald’s inner circle.
• Face–Heel Turn: After being convinced that Grindelwald will make her dream of marrying Jacob come true, she joins his side, eventually abandoning her lover and sister.
• Fake Period Excuse: When trying to sneak Tina, Newt, and Jacob out of MACUSA in Newt's suitcase, she claims to not be feeling well and says the suitcase contains "lady things" to freak Abernathy out enough to take her word for it.
• The Fashionista: In her first scene she's seen magically mending one of her dresses, is mentioned on Pottermore to have fashion magazines on her side of the bedroom, and in general wears more elaborate pieces compared to her sister.
• The Flapper: Her wardrobe and spirited mindset make her the closest person the first two movies have to this trope, since they're set in The Roaring '20s.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: She's blond, and a genuine Nice Girl.
• Head-Turning Beauty: She's gorgeous, and she knows the effect it has on men (telling Jacob she's used to reading it in their minds).
• Heel–Face Turn: She eventually defects from Grindelwald in Secrets of Dumbledore, and gets back together with Jacob.
• Laugh of Love: She tends to laugh when she's with Jacob, which he tends to reciprocate. A particularly​ touching one occurs at the end of the film, when she giggles softly upon seeing Jacob at his bakery after he's had his mind wiped, and he grins in response, indicating that he remembers her in some capacity.
• Logical Weakness: While she can read the minds of people whose first language isn’t English, she can’t understand their thoughts. She even tells Newt in the first movie she has troubles with native English speakers who have a different accent.
• Love Makes You Crazy: When Jacob refuses to marry her since their marriage would mean MACUSA would throw her in jail, she starts to become irrational and possessive, going so far as to enchant him and drag him into the UK to get married. When Jacob thinks she's crazy for this, she leaves in a huff for Paris. Then she's persuaded to join Grindelwald's cause because she's naive (or desperate) enough to think that his vision of wizards living openly will mean that she and Jacob can marry - even though it's obvious from the subtext in his speech that he thinks of non-magical people as less than human. When Jacob (who was with her at the speech) begs her not to join Grindelwald, it doesn't take.
• A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read: The Crimes of Grindelwald shows the downsides of Queenie's abilities; alone and despairing in a crowd of strangers whose thoughts she can't block out and can’t understand, she's reduced to a sobbing wreck.
• Muggle–Mage Romance: There was a blooming romance between her and Jacob Kowalski, before Jacob's memories had to be erased. However despite his memory loss and the laws against American witches and No-majes interacting she is still seen visiting his bakery at the end. In the second film, the romance returns but is spoiled when she decides Grindelwald is in the right regarding Muggle-Wizard relations. In the third, Jacob claims that as much as she's in denial, she still loves him. And indeed, as soon as she's away from Grindelwald, the romance restarts, and the film downrights ends with their wedding.
• My God, What Have I Done?: The third film immediately makes it clear that she regrets joining Grindelwald's cause now that she has seen his true colors and the only thing keeping her from abandoning the group is their Resignations Not Accepted policy.
• Nice Girl: She's a disarmingly sweet, good-natured, and adorable witch.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: She often plays dumb (or rather ditsy) around people, but when the time calls for it, she's deadly.
• Pink Means Feminine: Down to her lingerie and nightdress, she's almost always wearing pink or a peachy blush. She is also the most overtly feminine character in the film.
• Plucky Girl: In Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, she's a very brave and optimistic witch who doesn't hesitate to rescue her sister and newfound friends. By The Crimes of Grindelwald, it all sadly falls apart.
• Sanity Slippage: It's implied that the stress of maintaining an illegal relationship is affecting her mental state in The Crimes of Grindelwald; she used an enchantment that has the effect of a love potion to sway Jacob into following her overseas to get married, and after she decides to join Grindelwald, she screams for him to join her as she crosses over.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Queenie doesn't think much of putting the rules before doing the right thing, helping to save Newt and Tina from execution and seeking out a relationship with Jacob despite the law. Deconstructed in The Crimes of Grindelwald; Queenie's disregard for the rules leads her to have no problem acting without consulting others if she thinks she's in the right, enchanting Jacob to marry her despite his hesitance (due to the laws against their union), and being persuaded to join Grindelwald, whom she comes to believe shares the same ideals.
• Sensory Overload: She gets quickly overwhelmed while looking for Tina in Paris when she’s surrounded by people whose thoughts she can’t understand.
• Shameless Fanservice Girl: She is completely unpertubed by Newt and Jacob walking in while she is wearing lingerie, and assures Jacob he isn't the first man to have such thoughts upon meeting her.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Tina's the uptight serious career girl sister, Queenie's the bubbly carefree domestic sister. This does not mean that Queenie is any less dangerous than Tina is.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: She falls in love with Jacob because he's nice, honest, and open-minded about the wizarding world.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: She falls in love with Jacob, but since he's a No-Maj, she's legally not allowed to be with him. She attempts to pull a Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!, but after being unable to convince Jacob that putting herself in danger for love is a risk worth taking, she tries to use an enchantment on him that has the effect of a Love Potion. Even after Newt undoes the enchantment, she ultimately makes a Face–Heel Turn and joins Grindelwald in the mistaken belief that he can make a world where she can be together with Jacob.
• Story-Breaker Power: Queenie is such a powerful Legilimens that the story has to find workarounds for her not to know everything. This is mostly done by having her solely interact with foreigners whose thoughts she can’t understand. It’s established late in the first movie that she has trouble understanding thoughts of even native English speakers who have different accents, like Newt. From the time she leaves Newt’s house in the second until she and Jacob reunite at the rally, she doesn’t interact with anyone who’s a native speaker so she can’t understand her thoughts. The language barrier is used by Grindelwald to manipulate her into his cause.
• Supreme Chef: Jacob, who comes from a family where cooking is serious business, is impressed by the meal she magically prepares for him and Scamander.
• Telepathy: She's naturally a Legilimens, which allows her to pick up on news around the office and know what men think of her immediately.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: She is the girly girl compared to her sister Tina, who is an Action Girl and tomboyish. Queenie, meanwhile, prefers cooking and filling a more "domestic" role, outright stating that Tina's the career girl of the family. She wears very feminine clothes, including a pink coat, while her sister has a much more discreet wardrobe. That said, in this case, the Tomboy is the one obsessed with following the rules, while the Girly Girl is the rebellious one.

Jacob Kowalski

Jacob Kowalski

"I ain't a wizard. I'm just me."

Played by: Dan Fogler
Voiced by: Yasuhiro Mamiya (Japanese), Rafa Romero (European Spanish), Roberto Molina (Latin American Spanish), Laurent Maurel (French), Eduardo Borgeth (Brazilian Portuguese)
Appears in: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them | Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald | Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore

"You have something most men go their entire lives without. Do you know what that is? A heart that is full. Only a truly brave man... could open himself up so honestly and completely, as you do."

— Albus Dumbledore

A No-Maj from the Lower East Side. After serving in World War I, he returns home to Brooklyn with a dream to settle down and start his own bakery. Unfortunately, he ends up accidentally unleashing Newt Scamander's bag of magical creatures and is forced to accompany Newt, Tina, and Queenie on their adventure. In the second film, he is taken to Europe by Queenie after she bewitched him and then has to go to Paris with Newt to find her. In the third, he’s on the team that’s trying to stop Grindelwald from getting elected to the ICW chairmanship.

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• Arbitrary Skepticism: Averted. Unlike most Muggles, Jacob instantly believes in magic as soon as he sees it.
  Jacob: I don't think I'm dreaming.
  Newt: What gave it away?
  Jacob: I ain't got the brains to make this up.
• Audience Surrogate: He's pretty much the only character that's unaware that wizards and witches are a thing, so as he learns, so do we.
• Badass Normal: A World War I veteran who is able to keep up with Newt without any magical abilities and shown to punch Gnarlak in the face. Having no knowledge of magic, he also applies no-maj solutions to problems that his wizard companions attempt to solve magically; for instance, when Queenie is having difficulty opening a magically sealed door with her wand, Jacob simply kicks the door down. The magic was only sealing the lock, not the door itself. In the third film, he’s in the thick of the action trying to stop Grindelwald’s election and is even described in the synopsis as a “brave Muggle baker”.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Sure, he's the Big Fun most of the time and is generally out of his league in the magic world, but threaten his friends, and you'll get a nice punch in the face. He's a World War I veteran, after all.
• Big Fun: He's a chubby, kind, and friendly person. Although Fogler lost about 75 lbs between the productions of the second and third films.
• The Big Guy: Physically the strongest of the heroes in spite of being the shortest of the bunch.
• Break the Cutie: If you thought having to lose his memories in the first movie was bad, oh does it get worse. Grindelwald foretells a second World War coming soon and he loses Queenie to Grindelwald's cause.
• Brooklyn Rage: He has a Brooklyn accent comparable to Lou Costello, is a World War I veteran, and can surely throw a punch when necessary. However, he is very good-natured and doesn't show the slightest bit of aggressiveness.
• Did Not Get the Girl:
  • At the end of the first film, he doesn't end up with Queenie due to the obligation to wipe his memories of the magical world. Queenie still gives him a Last Kiss before the rain erases his memories. Later, as he opens his bakery, she comes to visit him.
  • At the end of the second film, Queenie abandons him to join Grindelwald's cause. Though, by the end of the third he convinces her to return to his side, and they are preparing for their marriage in the ending.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Whenever he's near Queenie, his train of thought slips.
• Fat and Skinny: The Fat to Newt Scamander's Skinny for comedy.
• Fat Comic Relief: There's at least one gag about his overweightness, as he gets stuck trying to enter Scamander's suitcase.
• Fish out of Water: Jacob is this as the No-Maj / Muggle that accidentally gets involved into the wizarding world as the result of a switching up of bags. He initially reacts baffled to his exposure to the wizarding world, but then pragmatically accepts its existence as a fact ("I ain't got the brains to make this up..."). He even gets to go to Hogwarts in both the second and third films and is only one of three Muggles who've ever been confirmed to visit the school.^note  It's said in Chamber of Secrets that Myrtle's parents were allowed to visit the school to collect her body.His dealing with situations with a Mundane Solution / Muggles Do It Better actually helps out the wizards ^note Jacob's kicking in a door, that Queenie can't open with spells, with just sheer physical force; his throwing a certain Jerkass goblin a punch in the face instead of magically stunning him. His strong Muggle presence especially stands out compared to the Harry Potter books and movies, none of which had a Muggle play a role as big as his.
• Foil: To Newt in practically every way. Jacob is a muggle, Newt is a wizard. Jacob is outgoing and friendly, while Newt is shy when it comes to any subject other than magical creatures. Jacob is portly and relatively short, while Newt is a beanpole.
• "Hey, You!" Haymaker: He saunters up behind two of Grindelwald's men and gives a cheerful "Hi!" before beating them both over the head with the suitcase he's holding.
• I Ate WHAT?!: He's grossed out in Secrets of Dumbledore when he realizes the magical candy gifted to him by some mischievous Slytherin students was a bag of Cockroach Clusters.
• The Load: Even more than you'd expect, since any friendly interaction between wizards and No-Majs is strictly forbidden under Rappaport's Law in America. However, as the film progresses, he shucks this role, coming up with many a Mundane Solution to his friends' problems.
• Muggle Best Friend: He becomes this for Scamander and the Goldstein sisters. However, his memories of magic have to be wiped at the end of the film, though he subconsciously remembers parts of his adventures with them, as his bakery sells pastries based the beasts he saw with Newt and he touches where the Murtlap bit him when he sees Queenie again.
• Muggle–Mage Romance: There was a blooming romance between him and Queenie Goldstein, before Jacob's memories had to be erased. There may still be some subconscious memory of her in his head though, as he seems to recognize Queenie when she visits his bakery. In the second film, they are in love again but Queenie makes a Face–Heel Turn that means he has no place in her life anymore. In the third, he deeply misses her, and while Queenie ignores Jacob the first time he sees her again, when in Bhutan he declares his undying love while pointing out she's in denial of her feelings. And indeed, as soon as Grindelwald is out of the picture, they get together again and the end of the movie is their wedding.
• Muggles: He's a "No-Maj" ("no magic", the American expression for "Muggle"), he has no magical power whatsoever and yet finds himself involved in the magical world by accident.
• Nice Guy: A good-natured man who wants to escape his alienating canning factory job and make people happy with pastries.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: He is responsible for Newt's creatures being set loose in New York. Though to be fair to the guy, he thought he was just opening his suitcase of pastries.
• Plucky Comic Relief: The main comedic character in the films.
• Pursue the Dream Job: Works in a canning factory, but wants to become a baker.
• Retired Badass: He fought in World War I, and can still throw a punch if necessary.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Downplayed, as he shows no obvious signs of PTSD, but when Grindelwald shows everyone a vision of World War II, Jacob is quietly horrified.
  "Not another war..."
• Star-Crossed Lovers: He and Queenie fall in love over the course of the movie, but since she's a witch and he's a No-Maj, they're legally prohibited from being together. Even after reuniting, they are pulled apart again because Jacob doesn't want Queenie risking her life for his sake, and she later joins Grindelwald after being duped by his For the Greater Good schpiel in the hopes that he will let her be with Jacob.
• Stout Strength: He's somewhat heavyset, and is able to kick a door open and lay out a cackling goblin in one sucker punch.
• Supreme Chef: While the banker refuses to try his pastries, the eventual success of his bakery shows he is really good with them.
• Sweet Baker: A good-natured man who got involved in the first film's plot because he intended to open a bakery. He succeeds.
• Token Human: Jacob is the token No-Maj, and he has possibly the largest role ever held by a non-magical person thus far in J. K. Rowling's world. By the third film, the magical community has given up on trying to wipe his memory and continue dragging him into adventures.
• Unfazed Everyman: All told, he rolls pretty well with the phenomenon of magic being revealed to him.
• Victory-Guided Amnesia: Due to the strict laws upholding The Masquerade, his memory has to be wiped at the end of the first film. But it doesn't take because the potion used only erases bad memories.
• The Watson: Jacob Kowalski serves this role, being a Muggle (or No-Maj) and therefore needing to have various aspects of the magical world explained to him, especially those not previously explored in the Harry Potter films.
• What You Are in the Dark: His first scene in Secrets of Dumbledore. From his perspective, a woman outside his store is being intimidated by a trio of goons. He's under no obligation to do anything, but he still storms out and doesn't back down against the much larger men. This turns out to be invoked by Lally, the woman in peril, who set the encounter up just to prove to Jacob how brave he can be.
• Wistful Amnesia: Even after having his memories erased he still maintains subconscious memories of Newt's beasts and Queenie after his memory wipe. It's revealed in Crimes of Grindelwald that Swooping Evil venom only erases "bad memories", and meeting Newt, Queenie and Tina and learning of the wonders of Magic is anything but a bad memory for Jacob.

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