[Blockbuster Trade] Andrew Garfield could save Fantastic Beasts from Eddie Redmayne

The Fantastic Beasts franchise is a mess, and it’s only one movie into its run. The first Beasts movie was a mixed bag. Longtime Potter director David Yates was able to capture the tone of most of the Potter world he helped define, but some of the magic was still missing. For deep Potter lore enthusiasts (we know who we are), the abundance of nods to old side characters and events brought the kind of geeky hyper-analysis typically reserved for comic book fans trying to explain to their friends whatever an Infinity Stone is. Still, in her first screenplay, even J.K. Rowling couldn’t entirely recapture whatever energy the Potter series provided, and the sequel already looks like it’s off to a rough start.

Let’s face it, Colin Farrell being revealed to be Johnny Depp in hiding was one of the biggest movie letdowns I can remember. I saw Beasts twice in theaters and both times I could literally feel and hear audiences deflate when the reveal happened. Groans, confusion, or chuckling were the typical responses. To say nothing of Depp’s presence in these movies at this particular social moment after the accusations made against him by Amber Heard, Depp is just also an inferior performer to Farrell. But still, could hot young Colin Farrell/Grindelwald fighting former lover, young hot Jude Law/Dumbledore save this series? Probably not (though it couldn’t hurt).

Whether we admit it or not, the problem is still Eddie Redmayne. Redmayne felt like one of those dudes who Hollywood quickly rallied behind for reasons that confused me. His role in My Week with Marilyn was solid—a young, naive audience surrogate being swept up in love with Marilyn Monroe. Redmayne’s boyish demeanor worked clearly in his favor. Les Miserables used a similar strategy, with Redmayne playing a symbol of youthful love and verve, singing his heart out in an empty room with the camera zoomed in on his freckles and spirit. Then 2016 happened. An academy Award for his portrayal of Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything and an all-time hammy performance in Jupiter Ascending in the same year. All this to say that for Rowling and Warner Bros, Redmayne seemed poised for superstardom. But they were wrong.

Redmayne can’t stop mumbling. It’s an actor choice he often uses, exacerbated here by how he sees Beasts’ Newt Scamander, a character meant to be eccentric, yet lovable. In the theaters, multiple people I’ve spoken to have said they couldn’t understand half of what Redmayne says, nor could they get a handle on who he was supposed to be and why we were supposed to like him. I’d say this is because, along with miscasting Depp and frankly Katherine Waterson, Redmayne wasn’t built for this role. This role was made for the current king of lithe, quirky, lovable, boyish heroes: Andrew Garfield.

Andrew Garfield is an incredible talent. He has shown a depth of vulnerability and nuance in most everything he’s done. I’ll argue to the death that Garfield should have won Best Supporting Actor for his work in The Social Network. And his work is notably powerful in indies like Boy A, Never Let Me Go, and Spike Jonze’s short film I’m Here. In all of these movies, he’s quickly able to capture audience’s hearts as a young boy who just needs to be hugged. And it helps that we can actually understand what he’s saying. Sure, his Spider-Man movies were bad, but I’d argue they were soulless corporate blobs outside of his saving. The best thing about them were Garfield and Emma Stone’s infectious chemistry. And real talk, the romance in Fantastic Beasts could use some work, too.

Garfield is the right Newt Scamander. He’s even British, the one requirement J.K. Rowling seems to hold for everyone not named Johnny Deep for some reason. Garfield is built to be the endearing, magical nerd who deeply loves magical creature outcasts, and to be the outcast we learn to love, too. Redmayne was believed to be the next big leading man, but Newt Scamander isn’t even the real lead in his own franchise—the growing conflict between Dumbledore and Grindlewald is. Newt is just along for the ride. One of Garfield’s greatest strengths is his ability to support, and that’s what this franchise desperately needs right now.

And since the spirit of this column is supposed to be where I now cast Redmayne in a role of Garfield’s, I have to figure out where he belongs. Casting him in the recent Breathe as a brilliant man with disability would be the easy choice, given his role in The Theory of Everything, but that’s too crass. So instead, Redmayne should have been in Martin Scorcese’s Silence, playing the young Portuguese priest locked in Japanese prison, crying and pleading for someone who speaks English to help set him free.

He’s great at not being understood.

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