There’s A Harry Potter Book Easter Egg In The New Fantastic Beasts Movie

In the 25 years since Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was first published in 1997, the wizarding world has grown beyond anything that novel’s first readers could have imagined. Not only has the original seven-book series been adapted into a franchise of beloved films, but it’s also inspired a theme park, a Broadway play, and, most recently, a second franchise of films. The Fantastic Beasts movies, though connected to the original books by key characters and settings, take the franchise in a new direction. But David Yates, director of the latest installment, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, along with many other Potter films, hasn’t forgotten where the story all began. In The Secrets of Dumbledore, he includes an Easter egg calling all the way back to the books.

The Secrets of Dumbledore tracks the efforts of Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) to stop Gellert Grindelwald (played, in this installment of the franchise, by Mads Mikkelsen) from gaining power. Near the end of the film, the cast travels to Bhutan, where the election is being held for the next leader of the International Confederation of Wizards — a highly powerful position Grindelwald hopes to occupy.

The film shows the outside of the building where the election takes place, and it’s there that Yates and production designer Stuart Craig, who’s worked on the Potter films since The Sorcerer’s Stone, included a shout-out to the original books. Wooden beams on the outside of the building feature carved stars that match those that readers will remember appearing at the corner of every page of the Harry Potter books:

If you’re not a Harry Potter super-fan — or just haven’t read the books in a while — this pattern of three stars may not mean much to you, but the image has inspired plenty of artisans on Etsy, where you can buy, among other things, earrings, a bookmark, and T-shirts emblazoned with the image. You can also buy temporary tattoos of the stars — and some people have gone even farther and gotten them inked on permanently. “This tattoo is just a reminder that Harry Potter is always there for me when I need it ― it’s a comfort for me,” Holly Schwartz, who has the stars tattooed on her wrist, told The Huffington Post.

In Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, the iconic stars don’t appear as a trio; instead, one marks the end of each wooden beam on the building. But they still act as a tip of the cap to the place where the story all began… for viewers with sharp enough eyes to catch the reference.