Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald Photo: Newt And Tina Reunite

As we near the new year, one of 2018's most anticipated movies will slowly start to open its magical briefcase of treasures.

The controversial retention of Johnny Depp aside, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is an exciting follow-up to 2016's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by virtue of the compelling main characters and the continued expansion of Harry Potter's enchanting world. So it's smart that the first image we see of the film outside of the initial cast photo would be of the two who tied Fantastic Beasts together: Eddie Redmayne's Newt Scamander and Katherine Waterston's Tina Goldstein. And they're looking fresh and fancy.

Fantastic Beasts left us off with Newt and Tina parting ways, despite the blossoming relationship between them. But it's not a bittersweet separation as the one between Queenie Goldstein (Alison Sudol) and Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler), which left the No-Maj Jacob without memories of his wizarding adventures. Newt was only off to Europe with the goal of finishing his book that would later become an essential educational tool in the Harry Potter series, promising Tina that he would return.

Now in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, it looks like Newt and Tina will finally reunite, with both of them sporting sleek new haircuts and threads — though under more somber circumstances. Empire Magazine debuted the new image, which features Tina in a stylish bob cut and the two of them in much darker outfits than the ones they wore in the first film.

We don't know how much time has passed between the first film and The Crimes of Grindelwald, though Fantastic Beasts director David Yates did tell us that the sequel would take place not too long after the events of the first movie: "A little bit of time [has passed]. Two years later. A year or two later, I should say." This would place The Crimes of Grindelwald sometime in 1927 or 1928.

That would place The Crimes of Grindelwald in the heat of Grindelwald's global wizarding war, which lasted from the 1920s to 1945. This explains the grim, more practical outfits and the perturbed expressions on both Newt and Tina's faces. Newt, after all, has been recruited by his old professor Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) to join the battle against Grindelwald (Johnny Depp). No more time for playing with fantastic beasts.

Here is the official synopsis for Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald:

At the end of the first film, the powerful Dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald (Depp) was captured by MACUSA (Magical Congress of the United States of America), with the help of Newt Scamander (Redmayne). But, making good on his threat, Grindelwald escaped custody and has set about gathering followers, most unsuspecting of his true agenda: to raise pure-blood wizards up to rule over all non-magical beings.

In an effort to thwart Grindelwald's plans, Albus Dumbledore (Law) enlists his former student Newt Scamander, who agrees to help, unaware of the dangers that lie ahead. Lines are drawn as love and loyalty are tested, even among the truest friends and family, in an increasingly divided wizarding world.

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is set to hit theaters on November 16, 2018.