How Dumbledore could make an appearance in the 'Harry Potter' prequel movies

Warner Bros. Pictures

Who wouldn't want to see a young Albus Dumbledore?

While fans wait impatiently for every scrap of "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" news, J.K. Rowling is already planning beyond November 2016 and has outlined the next two movies, according to Entertainment Weekly.

And while that alone should excite "Harry Potter" fans, what's even better is that long-time "Harry Potter" producer David Heyman told Entertainment Weekly that we could see beloved characters in future films, including the old Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore.

Via EW's print magazine [emphasis ours]:

Down the road, Heyman hints, we shouldn't be surprised to see a familiar face or two. A line of dialogue in "Fantastic Beasts" references a wizard you may have heard of - some guy named Dumbledore.

Fans have been hoping since the plot of "Beasts" was revealed that we might see Dumbledore, who not only wrote the introduction of Newt Scamander's "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" textbook, but has a "lost period" in his biography between his graduation from Hogwarts in 1899 and his professorship at the school by 1938.

"Fantastic Beasts" is set in 1926 New York City, which would make Dumbledore in his mid-forties. 12 years later by 1938, we know that Dumbledore is a professor of Transfiguration at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry because that's when he goes to tell a certain young Voldemort - then known as Tom Riddle - he's a wizard.

We also know Dumbledore and Professor Slughorn started at Hogwarts around the same period, according to Molly Weasley in 2005's "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince." When he retired in 1981, Slughorn had been teaching for around 50 years, so fans can assume he took up the post in the late 1920s or early 1930s.

Assuming Dumbledore took up his position at Hogwarts around the same time, that still leaves nearly three decades between his graduation to his start as a Hogwarts professor where we have no idea what Dumbledore was up to. It would certainly allow Rowling to insert him into the "Fantastic Beasts" movies.

Entertainment Weekly

Could Dumbledore and Newt Scamander be friends or allies?

But if Dumbledore appears in this film or future films, what will he be doing? Dumbledore's full life story is still only known to Rowling herself, but the "Fantastic Beasts" trilogy could be a way for fans to get a glimpse of Dumbledore's early adulthood. Was he already discovering the 12 uses of dragon's blood? Or perhaps he had already befriended Nicholas Flamel and was experimenting with alchemy?

My personal theory is that we could see Dumbledore working at the International Confederation of Wizards. Rowling recently told fans the Confederation is essentially the United Nations for wizards, and when Harry Potter was at Hogwarts, Dumbledore was a Supreme Mugwump for the Confederation, which sounds like a sort of senior delegate.

We also know the Confederation will be referenced in "Fantastic Beasts," according to EW, as will the American version of the Ministry of Magic known as the Magical Congress of the United States of America (MACUSA). Perhaps we will see Dumbledore as a visiting dignitary or politician before he took up his post at Hogwarts.

No matter what, hopefully "Fantastic Beasts" will let us see more of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore.