‘Fantastic Beasts 2’ Star Thought His Character Torquil Travers Wasn’t Important

When Derek Riddell first signed on to play Torquil Travers in “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald,” he didn’t think that he’d be playing anyone important in the Harry Potter universe.

For Riddell, Travers was just another name. Little did he know that Travers would one day become one of Lord Voldemort’s most loyal Death Eaters.

“I just went that's his name and I filmed it and I had no idea. I thought it was just a name J.K. Rowling had written for this character,” he told Digital Spy. “I just turned up, said my lines and it was an amazing experience.”

After taking part in the franchise, Riddell can now proudly say that the sequel will add “another layer” to the whole Harry Potter story. “There’s a lot there because there's things that appear in this film that connect with stuff that happens in Harry Potter and they’ll be able to go, ‘Oh that means that, and that means that,’” he teased.

Meanwhile, lead star Eddie Redmayne, who plays magizoologist Newt Scamander, told Collider that the sequel would run a bit longer than the first film because of the interesting tidbits Rowling wove into the story.

“It’s a most intricate script and she’s woven these extraordinary threads that pull you back into the world of Potter and collect the beasts lore, the sort of Potter lore,” he said. “I’ve been so lucky in the past 4 years to work with Jo [Rowling] and to work with Nick Park, who I think are two of the great storytellers. What is amazing about working with Jo is that she does it because of how passionate she is about her characters. It oozes from every pore of her and you feel so inspired, basically, working on one of her pieces because you know how much she cares about every single character. That’s a wonderful thing.”

In the sequel, Jude Law will be playing the young Albus Dumbledore while Johnny Depp will once again portray his former friend-turned-rival, Gellert Grindelwald.

“Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” will be released on Nov. 16.