Fantastic Beasts: 5 Reasons Newt Should Have Ended Up With Leta (& 5 He’s Better With Tina)

Newt Scamander is not a man of romance, but he remains the only character in the Fantastic Beasts series (thus far) who had multiple romantic involvements, and two that could easily be construed as love. While Newt ends up with Tina, it wasn’t without some drama that he got there, most of which was caused by his youthful love for Leta Lestrange, who had since become engaged to Newt’s brother Theseus. But the feelings between Newt and Leta are still there, and it’s worth thinking about who Newt should have ended up being with—Tina or Leta.

And so, let’s dig into who Newt would have been better off with, and why.

10 Leta: She Doesn’t Like The Ministry Either

Newt makes it quite clear, though never outright stating it, that he is not a fan of the Ministry of Magic. He avoids them, he is constantly at odds with them, and when he goes in to attempt to lift his travel ban (with Theseus’s “help”), that distaste really sprouts up like never before.

Leta is very similar, though without so much animosity. Leta joins the “ministry family” at Theseus’s request, but it’s made clear that she has always been an outcast from the wizarding community and will never be a part of the traditional ministry family, as Theseus sees it.

9 Tina: She Didn’t Get Engaged To Theseus

Yeah, it’s a big factor. Newt and Leta effectively ended when Leta got engaged to Newt’s brother. Whatever her motivation, and whatever her feelings towards Theseus and Newt, there really isn’t any coming back from that. Getting engaged to someone’s brother isn’t the best way to get back with that someone.

Tina, on the other hand, does not get engaged to Theseus. Rather, she uses her magical abilities to hex Theseus into a chair and sends him spinning out of the way when Newt and Tina are infiltrating the French Ministry of Magic.

8 Leta: She’s All About The Scamanders

Sure, getting engaged to Theseus was not a good look to her future prospects as Newt’s sweetheart, but clearly Leta finds something so inclusive and welcoming about the Scamanders that when she couldn’t get one, she immediately went to and won over the other.

Maybe it’s a little twisted how it all panned out, but the fact that Leta finds such familiarity and love in the Scamanders means she would have been an excellent addition to the family. Although preferably with  Theseus as a brother-in-law and nothing more.

7 Tina: She’s Perfectly Awkward, Like Him

Newt is one awkward dude. In the flashbacks to his time at Hogwarts, he comes across as that kid that didn’t have a lot of friends, didn’t fit in, and found more camaraderie on his own secret island where Bowtruckles live—creatures that actually understand him.

As such, Newt grows into even more awkwardness as he continues to shun the company of people in favor of beasts and isolation. But Tina is just as awkward as him, albeit not quite as much. As a couple, they are just odd, and that’s what makes them so charming.

6 Leta: Ever Since They Were Young

When Leta goes back to Hogwarts with the ministry family, she opens up a desk and finds, carved underneath, L+N . In the flashbacks to Newt’s time as a student, the only normal human interaction he has is with Leta. He shares secrets with her that he would never share with anyone else.

Ever since they were students, Newt and Leta had something special, and something that either Leta or Newt thought was worth the petty act of romantic vandalism. In the Harry Potter universe, childhood friends literally always end up together, so…

5 Tina: She’s In It For Newt

Let’s revisit the instance where Tina stands up for Newt, because in this instance, she does something that Leta would never do. Theseus has caught up with Newt and is about to apprehend him on behalf of the Ministry, but Tina steps up to bat, inserting herself between the two brothers, and hexes Theseus into a chair, sending him tied and spinning away from their mission.

Tina’s top priority here is Newt, so much so that she attacks another Ministry employee, which would likely land her in a heck of a lot of trouble. But she does it, and she does it for Newt.

4 Leta: She’s An Outcast, Like Him

While Tina may have a personality that meshes well with Newt, with them both being a bit awkward, who Leta and Newt are at their core is much stronger—they are outcasts. But they are outcasts for good. Grindelwald tries to prey on their standing in the wizarding community, how neither really fits in, but they both stand strong on the good side and unite.

Neither Newt nor Leta would ever fit in (although at least Newt still has a chance to), and that’s what would have made their potential romance such a perfect fit.

3 Tina: She’s Interested In Who He Is Now

Tina shows on so many occasions that she is so interested in the things that Newt does. She wants to read his book, she wants to know the beasts, she wants to help him achieve what he wants to achieve. She knows Newt as he is now better than anyone else, and it makes her interested in him more than anyone else.

Leta’s attraction for Newt is hard to ground in who he is right now because she’s not around him anymore. She’s around Theseus, thinking about what she imagines Newt would be these days. Tina’s more in the know with the modern Newt.

2 Leta: She Always Loved Him

In the “who has loved Newt longer” contest, Leta wins. As has been alluded to throughout the course of this list, Leta’s affection for Newt goes all the way back to when they were kids in school. They were close friends in the wake of not having anyone else.

Through it all, even thru her engagement to his brother, Leta still loves Newt. When she’s about to attack Grindelwald, she turns and ambiguously says “I love you” at such an angle that it could be to Newt or Theseus. But given JK Rowling’s penchant of pairing all of her child characters as adults, it had to be towards Newt.

1 Tina: She’s On His Level

From the moment they first meet, you can just tell that Tina and Newt are on the same wavelength. They just get each other. Their conversations are immensely entertaining, from Newt’s “you’ve gone middle head” to Tina filling in “salamander” when Newt keeps stuttering over the ‘s’. These are two people that fit together on so many levels that there could be no one else they are better off with. They’re like every cliche in the book—peanut butter and jelly, birds of a feather, so on and so forth. So good thing Leta got out of the way.

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