Fantastic Beasts: Ranking Every Character From Worst To Best
From No-Majs to MACUSAs and monsters...
Warner Bros and JK Rowling were always facing a difficult task when it was clear they'd have to introduce a whole new cast of characters for Fantastic Beasts. They'd inevitably face questions of which veteran characters could appear (and seriously, kudos for not going for cheap cameos), and the unspoken rule of legacy films also means all fans would inevitably compare them to the Potter cast.
To do so is reductive and not to be encouraged, but remarkably, Newt Scamander and his American friends (and foes) actually do mostly stack up against the better Harry Potter characters. They're not quite in a position to have earned the same kind of iconic appeal, but there are stand-outs in the packed cast who could well go down as some of the most memorable and most loved characters in the entire Wizarding World franchise.
But which one comes out on top of this new pile?
Here's how all of the major characters in Fantastic Beasts rank in terms of awesomeness (including some of the cuddlier, scalier and hornier variety)...
19. Henry Shaw
Unfortunately, it very much feels like the Shaws were added to Fantastic Beasts to reflect a growing awareness (or suspicion) in the No--Maj community around magical characters and the "threat" they represent.
As such, Henry Shaw - a surface-level pantomime villain who is introduced only so he can call the Second Salemers freaks and to help feed the deception that Modesty is the real Obscurial - is no more than a narrative device. His death is used for effect, and while it's a cool little sequence, he's so undeveloped that it's almost impossible to feel anything but mild amusement that he's killed.
It works as misdirection though, which says nothing about the quality of the character.