Just how much trouble is Newt Scamander in? That's the question on many Potterheads' lips at the moment as we impatiently await the cinematic premiere of 'Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them'. We know that he attracts the attention of the American Ministry of Magic when he arrives in New York with a suitcase full of magical creatures, some of which subsequently escape, but that's not the worst thing that's happening in the wizarding world at the moment.

Eddie Redmayne in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find ThemEddie Redmayne stars as Newt Scamander in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Gellert Grindelwald has struck again in Europe, with huge plans to disrupt the secretive harmony between wizards and No-Majs. Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) is faced with the image of a maimed dead man suspended in the air when he arrives in court, but Newt knows of no creature that can inflicted that sort of wound.  Nonetheless, according to a new clip released ahead of the movie, head auror Percival Graves (Colin Farrell) is highly suspicious of Newt. Expelled from Hogwarts for 'endangering human life' with one of his beasts, things don't look good for the magizoologist regardless of Albus Dumbledore's fondness of him and his claims that it was all an accident. 

Now he's being accused of letting loose his menagerie deliberately to 'expose wizardkind' and to 'provoke war between the magical and non-magical worlds' as Grindelwald and his followers are so determined to do. Many might think that Newt's allegiance to Albus Dumbledore is proof enough that he's one of the good guys, but just how long would it take for Percival Graves to dig into the teacher's past and discover his schoolboy friendship with Durmstrang student Grindelwald? Indeed, it wasn't a struggle for Rita Skeeter in 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'.

Watch the 'Fantastic Beasts' clip here:


 

Newt initially didn't seem too concerned about the lack of security on his suitcase when he thought it was just a Murtlap that had escaped, but when he comes across a Billywig, an Occamy, a Demiguise, a Bowtruckle, a Niffler and an Erumpent, it becomes quite the job to round them all up before the No-Majs (Muggles) and the Magical Congress of the United States of America (MACUSA) discover them. It was a job that was not quite as successful as he'd hoped because he ends up arrested and brought before MACUSA along with his new friend Porpentina Goldstein (Katherine Waterson) and Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler) - the No-Maj who inadvertantly opened the case and whom Newt failed to obliviate. But right now Newt's main concern is what they'll do to the magical creatures in his suitcase which they've impounded. 

He's got enough to contend with being on the run from MACUSA, but a greedy goblin (Ron Perlman) at the local speakeasy does nothing to aid him and there's trouble elsewhere in the city and not just from the wizard-hating Second Salemers. Something is on the loose demolishing the city in front of Muggles, some kind of vast, glowing underground fiend. Magic seems to be uncontrolled and everywhere, alerting the attentions of even the most down-to-earth muggles. 

Meanwhile, who is this Credence fellow? And who is the owner of that Deathly Hallows chain we glimpsed in an earlier featurette? A symbol that Viktor Krum once said was the sign of Grindelwald.