At the end of the first film, the powerful Dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald was captured
by MACUSA (Magical Congress of the United States of America), with the help of Newt Scamander. But, making good on his threat, Grindelwald escaped custody and has set about
gathering followers, most unsuspecting of his true agenda: to raise pure-blood wizards up to rule over
all non-magical beings.
In an effort to thwart Grindelwald’s plans, Albus Dumbledore enlists his former student
Newt Scamander, who agrees to help, unaware of the dangers that lie ahead. Lines are drawn as love
and loyalty are tested, even among the truest friends and family, in an increasingly divided wizarding
world.

I always strive to make a film that is both entertaining as well as meaningful for an audience. My early
work began in television with thrillers and dramas, and social and political themes ran through it like
words through a stick of rock. When Hollywood came calling I resisted initially, primarily because
most of the scripts that got sent my way could not compete with the scripts I was getting offered in
television. Then everything changed, and I was introduced to JK Rowling and her magnificent and
magical world. A world in which there was an escape to entertainment, but also a celebration of some
essential core values, love, loyalty, tolerance, understanding and a celebration of the outsider, the
other.
THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD is the sixth film in JK’s world, in a journey that has been enormously
involving and great fun, and it charts the rise of an ideology (held by Grindelwald) that seeks to pull the
world apart. In opposition to that, our protagonists fumble and find their way, facing up to the
darkness in the best way they know how, by standing together.
I orchestrated the film to allow time with multiple characters and ideas, in a way that served both the
immediate narrative and the bigger story unfurling across several films. Above all I wanted to preserve
that balance, to entertain and to reflect the world around us, in a way that felt relevant and resonant.

David Yates is an English filmmaker who helmed the last four HARRY POTTER films and the
FANTASTIC BEASTS films.
In 2016, he directed the action adventure THE LEGEND OF TARZAN, starring Alexander Skarsgård,
Margot Robbie, Samuel L. Jackson and Christoph Waltz.
Yates won his first BAFTA Award for his work on the BBC miniseries THE WAY WE LIVE NOW, a
period drama starring Matthew Macfadyen and Miranda Otto. In 2003, he directed the drama series
STATE OF PLAY, for which he received a BAFTA Award nomination and won the Directors Guild of
Great Britain (DGGB) Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement.
His other television work includes the gritty two-part drama SEX TRAFFIC, which won a number of
international awards, including eight BAFTA and four RTS Awards, both including Best Drama, as
well as the Jury Prize for Best Miniseries at the Reims International Television Festival.
Yates earned an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or
Dramatic Special for his work on the 2005 HBO movie THE GIRL IN THE CAFE, a love story starring
Bill Nighy and Kelly Macdonald.
Yates grew up in St. Helens, Merseyside, and studied Politics at the University of Essex and at
Georgetown University in Washington, DC. He began his directing career with the award-winning
short film WHEN I WAS A GIRL, which he also wrote.