Late June saw the release of Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, Niantic's pseudo-sequel to Pokémon Go, which pretty much nobody asked for. Well, perhaps that’s not entirely accurate; Pokémon Go has managed to maintain a decent player base three years after release, and maybe a fresh coat of paint and a new set of mechanics could reinvigorate the AR walkabout genre.
Wizards Unite wasn’t exactly met with universal praise, but it has garnered enough buzz to warrant tons of special events, and, much like Pokémon Go before it, an upcoming real-world convention for players. We’ve just seen the conclusion of the game’s first “Brilliant Event,” a limited-time-only occurrence which could roughly be equated to the seasons which players of Fortnite and Apex Legends should be familiar.
The first Brilliant Event, Fantastic Flora and Fauna, only lasted a week, spanning from the third to the tenth of July. That’s not a ton of time for players to track down every unique encounter available through the event, but it’s not exactly as content-rich as a Fortnite Battle Pass or equivalent.
The challenges available during the Fantastic Flora and Fauna event weren’t all that in-depth; they mostly involved capturing a certain amount of medium to high threat foundables, or walking a certain distance. The event didn’t add anything particularly noteworthy to the game, though, given how new the game is at this point, that’s to be expected.
Hot on the heels of the game’s first Brilliant event, however, comes a leak concerning the next one. The details are still uncertain, but an early look at the foundables for the next Brilliant Event was posted to the Wizards Unite subreddit, and it features some intriguing material. Chiefly, it seems that Newt Scamander, the protagonist from the Fantastic Beasts films portrayed by actor Eddie Redmayne, will be joining the game as a foundable.
This shouldn’t come as a huge surprise for players, as just about every named character from the Harry Potter books and movies appears in the game in some form. This will, however, be the first major inclusion from the Fantastic Beasts franchise, and it seems to hint that more characters from those films may be on the way.
While it hardly counts as a crossover given how closely related these two interuniversal stories are, it’s still nice to see the game getting such substantial content additions so close to release. Unfortunately, we don’t know the release date for this upcoming event, nor do we know the name or, aside from a few special creatures highlighted in the image, what all will be included.
Most fans of the Harry Potter universe will already have downloaded the game, but, for those few stalwarts out there, the addition of Newt Scamander and associated Fantastic Beasts foundables may just be enough to get in while the getting’s good. Of course, those who are still out there living their childhood dreams of becoming Ash Ketchum aren’t likely to ever be swayed into the Potterverse, and there’s nothing wrong with that.