When the Fantastic Beasts franchise was announced, the muggle world rejoiced at the prospect of spending more time in the wizarding world.
While the movies have been a box office success, fans of Harry Potter couldn't overlook The Crimes of Grindelwald's biggest gaffe.
Since the release of the movie last Friday, thousands of people have taken to Twitter to express their outrage over a detail that even JK Rowling, the screenwriter, and God of Harry Potter canon, completely overlooked.
Why? Spoiler alert: halfway through the COG the Ministry of Magic interrupts Albus Dumbledore teaching a Defense Against the Dark Arts class. As the Ministry enters the classroom a twenty-something Professor Minerva McGonagall angrily follows on their coat-tails. While fans of the series might have been thrilled to see a fan favourite, it's actually a significant issue.
According to Pottermore, Minerva McGonagall was not born when this event took place. Unless she has transfigured into a twenty-something-year-old or used a time turner, there's no possible way to explain this. Fans speculated that perhaps it was her mother but, as described in detail on the Harry Potter website Pottermore, McGonagall's mother was never a teacher.
Pottermore is part of the Harry Potter canon and is frequently updated by JK Rowling, the creator of the series. In the book series, J.K. Rowling reveals the famously strict Professor McGonagall started teaching at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in 1956 - twenty years after the Dumbledore and Ministry scene set in 1935. In The Order of The Phoenix, Dolores Umbridge asks McGonagall how long she's been teaching at Hogwarts and McGonagall hastily replies: "39 years".
Unsurprisingly, fans aren't happy and are questioning Rowling's impulsive decision to include McGonagall:
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basically #CrimesOfGrindelwald pic.twitter.com/tv0sT08nK8
— ?️??? (@aelius_op) November 18, 2018
Professor McGonagall shows up in #CrimesofGrindelwald eight years before her birthday? What’s going on? Mistake or plot twist? ??? @jk_rowling
— Mil Bocort (@MBocort) November 17, 2018
Me to jk rowling after watching #CrimesOfGrindelwald pic.twitter.com/SGV3ksroPr
— shai lou (@shaiwongsku) November 16, 2018
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@jk_rowling, I refuse to believe you made a timeline mistake. Minerva McGonagall was named after her grandmother, who taught Newt Scamander and Leta Lestrange at Hogwarts... right? Right? #FantasticBeasts #CrimesOfGrindelwald
— Ash Sherman (@ashleyets) November 14, 2018
@jk_rowling thnks for the world you've created. But I have an question : Minerva McGonagall wasn't born on october 4th 1935, eight years after Fantastic Beasts 2 events ?#FantasticBeast #HarryPotter #CrimesOfGrindelwald #WizardsUnite #WizardingWorld
— Gaetan Desrois (@DesroisGaetan) November 14, 2018
Think they must have taken it down to fix that. They can’t change this though, which proves she started teaching in 1956. Unless she decided to lie about her employment history for no conceivable reason pic.twitter.com/zwApNwKSMW
— Craig Davidson StN ????????????️? (@CraigDavidson85) November 17, 2018
Pottermore has since taken down the information about McGonagall's birth and JK Rowling has yet to speak about the change to the canon.
