JK Rowling Spoiled Fantastic Beasts 2's Credence Twist Years Ago

After the success of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, anticipation was high for the film's sequel, 2018's The Crimes of Grindelwald. Unfortunately, the final result ended up disappointing many Potterheads, with some fans complaining that the film's ending was both abrupt and slightly confusing. If you have not seen The Crimes of Grindelwald and plan to, beware of major spoilers ahead.

The ending of The Crimes of Grindelwald saw Credence Barebone (Ezra Miller) find out, thanks to Grindelwald, that he was in fact Aurelius Dumbledore. Viewers were probably more shocked than Credence was, confused as to where that plot line even came from. Well, according to Hypable, JK Rowling had been planning that particular twist for some time.

The site points out how on Rowling’s “Answers” page from her official website, there is a banner which includes the Loeb Classical Library Marcus Aurelius—yes, like Aurelius Dumbledore. In other words: Rowling literally dropped a major spoiler right next to the word “Answers.” Of course, we never would’ve realized until after the sequel was released. Clever, very clever.

Hypable also did a little research to find out exactly when this spoiler was added to Rowling’s site, and discovered that it had been uploaded all the way back in October 2016—one month before we were then introduced to Credence in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

This makes it almost obvious that the acclaimed author had this twist in mind before the first film was released, at the very least. But not all fans are buying it: some true Potter obsessives have pointed out how the timeline doesn't make sense—which means that either Rowling decided to break canon or Grindelwald is lying.