There are lots of spoilers ahead for Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald!
When Rowling said that there was a twist coming for Credence in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald, she wasn’t kidding.
As revealed in the film’s final moments, Credence is allegedly Aurelius Dumbledore – brother of Albus – and he was thought lost when, unbeknownst to anyone, Leta Lestrange swapped him and half-brother Corvus while travelling to America. While Corvus died, Aurelius was adopted by muggles in New York.
It’s a lot to unpack and, to potentially understand Credence’s place in the story even a little bit, we have to look back at what we already know about the Dumbledores.
Credence is Dumbledore’s brother
Though for much of Harry Potter we see Albus Dumbledore through the protagonist’s eyes, and therefore as a wise old teacher who has powers that rival most other wizards, Deathly Hallows (the book more than the films) goes much deeper into his backstory, relationships and character flaws.
As far as we knew, the Dumbledores consisted of Percival, Kendra and their children Albus, Aberforth and Ariana. Percival was imprisoned in Azkaban after retaliating against a gang of muggles who had attacked his daughter. The incident traumatised Ariana to the extent where she was locked away by her family, and was prone to frequent magical outbursts which have, since Fantastic Beasts And Where to Find Them, been used as proof by fans that she was an Obscurus.
One of these outbursts resulted in the death of Kendra, and Albus and Aberforth became estranged after a duel between the brothers and Grindelwald – who had befriended Albus and lured him into supporting his fascist anti-muggle cause – resulted in the death of Ariana. No one ever knew which of the three had cast the curse that killed her.
Now, according to canon (much of which we might have to throw out at this point), Percival died in Azkaban in 1890, and both Kendra and Ariana died in 1899. This timeline is the biggest fly in the ointment, as it would make it impossible for the Dumbledores to be Credence’s parents – he was born in 1901. Then again, McGonagall wasn’t born until the 1930s and she’s apparently teaching at Hogwarts in the ‘20s, so let’s not shut that particular door quite yet.
Credence is Ariana’s child
Another theory that’s been floating around the internet is that Ariana became pregnant after the attack – which is heavily, but not explicitly, coded as rape in the books – but the timeline doesn’t support this either. It also seems quite a lot to deal with for even these darker films.
But it’s an easy explanation that would allow Credence’s presence on the same boat as Leta and Corvus Lestrange to make sense, with a baby who had resulted from a terrible crime more likely to be given away than one born of normal family dynamics, however dysfunctional.
The prophecy regarding Credence speaks of “a son cruelly banished” and “despair of the daughter”, adding even more fuel to the fire of Ariana’s direct involvement. They are both Obscurials, which could mean that a) Rowling wants to tell a story of how abuse is cyclical or, b) it is actually the same Obscurus passed down from Ariana to Credence.
But the time of Ariana’s death is not the only timeline issue, as Deathly Hallows puts the date of the attack when she was six. Unless Rowling has some trickery up her sleeve, that’s too young to have become pregnant no matter what the circumstances.
Credence is a more distant relation
Grindelwald may not have been entirely literal when he said ‘brother’, and he could just have meant that Dumbledore is Credence’s family. At this point, the other significant time the word was used in the film was as a description of Grindelwald and Dumbledore’s own relationship, to which the latter said they were “closer than brothers”.
More evidence comes from the phoenix that is drawn to Credence much like Fawkes (if this is not, in fact, the same bird) is drawn to Dumbledore.
The only other family member we know of is Honoria – Percival Dumbledore’s sister. According to Rowling, Honoria was a spinster, but the lack of established information certainly leaves an opening for Credence to be her son. Perhaps something happened to her and he was given to his closest relatives, only to be given up for adoption or, most likely, the woman we see trying to save Corvus after the boat sinks is actually Honoria, and she was travelling for another reason?
Grindelwald is lying
Of course there’s always the chance that Grindelwald is lying to Credence in order to get him on side, but this is incredibly unlikely given both the way Rowling has always told her stories, and filmmaking rules in general. Much like with the reveal of Rey’s parentage in The Last Jedi, I’m extremely dubious that the final twist of a film like this would turn out not be true.
We already had the switch from Credence as a Lestrange to Credence as a Dumbledore, and going back on that doesn’t work. That’s just not how storytelling functions.
So Credence must be related to Dumbledore in some fashion, and he was at one point given the name Aurelius Dumbledore. There are very few ways in which this could work with the established world that Rowling has laid out, and we won’t know whether we need to update out internal Potter canon until at least 2020, when the third film is released. If you have your theories, let us know in the comments.