We're already counting down the days until the release of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the latest theatrical venture into J.K. Rowling's wizarding world. Fantastic Beasts follows Newt Scamander and is poised to introduce fans to American witchcraft and wizardry.
The movie won't feature our beloved Harry, Ron, and Hermione, but it's making up for it with loads of new characters, mythology, and even some new magic. That's right, Fantastic Beasts will give us a glimpse into a field of magic that was never explored in the Harry Potter series.
Alison Sudol revealed the new power when she told Entertainment Weekly about her character, Queenie Goldstein, who is a Legilimens. The power allows Queenie to read minds, which will surely conjure up memories of Harry's time studying Occlumency with Snape, but her power works in a different way. She's more of an empath, reading people's emotions and motivations.
"She's basically a complete and utter magical empath," Sudol told Entertainment Weekly. "She's able to read people—so it's not just reading somebody's thoughts. She's can read into someone's story, she can see people's goals. And so even though she's able to do magic with her wand, a lot of her magic is actually internal, which makes her a different type of wizard or witch. And she's incredibly fun, playful, joyful, and free-spirited, kind and wise, and also has a sort of stillness about her because she's always tuning into people, so she's quite an interesting character to play—very vivacious and lively, yet very centered and aware."
They definitely didn't teach this skill at Hogwarts. If you need us, we'll be in the Restricted Section reading up on this for the rest of the day.