Who is Leta Lestrange?

If you went to see Fantastic Beasts this past weekend, you know that while it isn’t a prequel to Harry Potter directly, there were a couple of references that fans picked up on.

One of the most mysterious instances was a fleeting shot of a photo in Newt’s suitcase featuring a young girl named Leta Lestrange.  So far, not much is known about her besides the fact that there seems to be a possible romantic tie between the two, and it was implied that she might have contributed to Newt’s expulsion from Hogwarts.

But fans of the series noticed that Leta shares a surname with one of the Harry Potter series’ most dedicated Death Eaters: Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter).

Known for her obsessive loyalty to Voldemort, Bellatrix is a pure-blood of House Black, and the older sister of Andromeda Tonks and Narcissa Malfoy. She married Rodolphus Lestrange after graduating from Hogwarts as a Slytherin. She and her husband took part in the torture of Neville Longbottom’s parents and were sentenced to life in Azkaban. However, she escaped and went on to murder some of the most loved characters of the original series including Dobby, Nymphadora Tonks, and Sirius Black. She was ultimately killed in the Battle of Hogwarts by Molly Weasley, as payback for attempting to murder her daughter Ginny.

Although there isn’t much known about Leta yet, I wonder if Bellatrix’s obsession with Dark Magic could have originated with Leta possibly being connected to Gellert Grindelwald. Only JK Rowling knows at this point, but we have five more movies to explore all the possibilities.

Leta will be played by Zoe Kravitz (Mad Max, Divergent, Dope) and JK Rowling has hinted that she will play a significant role in the next installment of the series. If you haven’t already, you can catch Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them in a theater near you.