Harry Potter Spin-off ‘Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them' May Feature Younger Versions of Other Characters From The Hit Series

J.K. Rowling's "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" is set in the Harry Potter Wizard World. Discounting the possibility of Harry Potter's return, other characters may make their appearance, albeit in their younger versions.

The film is set in an earlier time than the Harry Potter series. The fictional book which carries the title is already written and used by Harry Potter and the other young wizards in Hogwarts. The upcoming film will deal with the writer of the book and the circumstances in which it was written.  

Thus, the mentors in Hogwarts would be younger in the film's setting. It is very likely that they appear in the film. The main character, Newt Sacmander, was born in 1897 and graduated from Hogwarts in 1915, and he held different positions all the way to becoming Headmaster, until he stepped down in 1956.

On that timeline, Potter experts project characters that are the right age to make an appearance. "The Potter universe is vast and long-lived, and it's not beyond the realm of possibility that a young-ish Albus Dumbledore (born 1881) might show up, perhaps with one-time collaborator Nicholas Flamel (born, er, 1327, but then he did have the Philosopher's Stone to make him immortal) or Dumbledore's former bosom buddy Gellert Grindlewald (born 1882), who had probably gone bad by this point but had not yet lost his power-breaking duel against Dumbledore."

The appearance of Dumbledore may validate the rumors that this is a prequel to Harry Potter which Rowling denies. But it's hard to imagine that they would never cross paths at Hogwarts.