Tina Goldstein Is Barely in the New 'Fantastic Beasts' and Rumors Are Swirling

Spoiler alert: This article contains minor spoilers for Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore.

Many Harry Potter fans have mixed feelings about the Fantastic Beasts franchise, but up until the third film, most Potterheads agreed that the characters all had lovable qualities. Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston) is one of those lovable characters — she’s a bit reserved but also courageous. She’s basically a true Gryffindor, always aiming to do what’s right, even if it gets her in trouble.

She puts all of this over her personal relationships, which is something to be admired at times. Plus, this makes her relationship with Newt all the more exciting. Except her character is barely in The Secrets of Dumbledore. She’s only in two short scenes. Going mysteriously from a headlining character to a one-line wallflower is a major leap, so why isn’t Tina in more of The Secrets of Dumbledore? Where is Katherine Waterston?

Fans who have watched every Secrets of Dumbledore trailer won’t be too surprised to learn that Tina Goldstein is barely in the third Fantastic Beasts installment. Turns out the reason Tina isn’t in Secrets of Dumbledore actually isn’t exciting at all, nor does it really make sense in the plot of the film.

When Jacob Kowalski asks where Tina is when he’s brought to help defeat Grindelwald (yes, apparently a muggle is somehow useful in defeating the darkest wizard of all time), we learn that she’s been promoted to the head of the MACUSA Auror Office. Good for Tina! But it doesn’t really make sense that she’d be too busy to help defeat Grindelwald. Isn’t defeating dark wizards the job of an Auror?

Not only that, but Theseus Scamander, who is along for the journey, is the head of the Ministry of Magic’s Auror Office in London. Tina watches the final events unfold from what we can presume is the MACUSA office. And then she attends a very joyous event at the end of the film, in which she and Newt trade a couple of lines of dialogue before they get shooed inside. And that’s it for Tina in Secrets of Dumbledore!

Neither the film's producers nor Katherine has made a statement as to why she’s not in much of Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore. So we basically just have to make our best guess. Some outlets have drawn the conclusion that Katherine was actually cut out of Secrets of Dumbledore due to making a statement on her social media and to The Independent in support of trans rights and against J.K. Rowling’s anti-trans statements. However, that is purely speculative.

More likely, Katherine had some sort of scheduling conflict or COVID-19 conflict with the filming schedule. Because it was filmed during the pandemic, travel, health and safety restrictions, and quarantines could have made it too difficult for Katherine to be on set. In addition, she gave birth in 2019, so with a newborn in 2020, she might have been wary of working too much.

On the other hand, Katherine also worked on a few projects that may have been filmed during The Secrets of Dumbledore, although the exact schedules are unknown. Between HBO’s The Third Day and the 2020 film The World to Come, Katherine could have been unavailable. In 2023, she’s also starring in a new film called Babylon, which is now in post-production, so that could have been another conflict.

Regardless of the exact reason, it’s likely that Tina Goldstein will still be in the fourth and fifth Fantastic Beasts films. According to canon, she and Newt get married and start a family. Their grandson Rolf Scamander goes on to marry Luna Lovegood, and together, they have twin boys Lorcan and Lysander. So Tina’s presence in the franchise is essential to the future of Harry Potter canon.