Who is Leta Lestrange? - Zoe Kravitz will play a key part in the story going forward

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While speaking at a roundtable attended by Cinema Blend, Fantastic Beasts director David Yates (who is returning
to helm the sequel) confirmed that Leta will indeed play a key part in the story going forward, appearing in the
flesh in the next installment:

“Yes. Leta Lestrange comes into the second movie. She’s quite complicated and damaged and confused and Newt
is absolutely still in love with her, so she has a kind of power over him, and she, yeah, she’s a kind of tragic figure,
so we will see a bit more of her in the second movie.” (x)

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Zoe Kravitz was a late addition to Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and when you see the film, you understand how. All we see of her is a picture of her character, Leta Lestrange, among Newt Scamander’s possessions...

Christina Radish recently interviewed Kravitz:

A few teasers from Zoe/and a bit of insight into her audition with Eddie Redmayne. (via)

Don’t expect Leta to be a one-and-done character... Kravitz says that Leta and Newt have a “complex relationship” that will be explored in multiple films. However, she’s not exactly sure what it will contain. Even when she did a chemistry read with Eddie Redmayne, they weren’t given specific pages, so both actors are guessing at the kind of relationship their characters have.

Collider: Zoe Kravitz on ‘Fantastic Beasts 2’ and Newt and Leta’s “Complex Relationship”

Collider: You’re also a part of the Fantastic Beasts films, and we hear your role is going to be even 
bigger in the sequel. 

KRAVITZ: Yeah, it’s very exciting! Yeah, it wasn’t much, in the first one.
Have you started shooting that yet? 

KRAVITZ: No, that starts in June or July, I think. It’s sometime in the summer. I’m very excited. The one day I was
on set for that, and also for my audition process, being able to work with Eddie [Redmayne] and David [Yates] was incredible. The script was very under wraps, so even signing onto it, I hadn’t read the script. I just went off of who was involved, and J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter films, so I knew it was going to be incredible, especially with how involved J.K. is. And then, I got to see the film, after I was already signed on, and it exceeded my expectations. That was a really interesting experience, to sit back and watch a movie that you loved, and then get to walk out and say, “I get to be in that!” It’s a very cool thing...

Zoe Kravitz at the “Fantastic Beasts And Where To
Find Them” World Premiere at Alice Tully Hall,
Lincoln Center on November 10, 2016 in NYC (x)

Have they told you how much more you’ll get to be in? 

KRAVITZ: I think there’s a few ahead. The relationship between Leta and Newt Scamander is a complex relationship, so I think there will be a lot of time for that to grow and develop, which will be fun.

Have you gotten a peak at the script for the next film yet? 

KRAVITZ: I know nothing! I have an idea, based off of when I auditioned, but I know nothing. Even when I went to go do my chemistry read with Eddie, he was trying to help me piece together what was happening in the scene that we were reading. He doesn’t get to see anything either, so he was like, “I think based off of this line and this line, and what we shot here and here, this is what’s going on.” We had to guess. It was funny to watch him, trying to piece it all together...(x)

2018’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 2 will dramatically expand the canvas for Zoe Kravitz’s tragic figure. A former flame to Eddie Redmayne’s brilliant Magizoologist, Lestrange is poised to have a strong, compelling arc in Fantastic Beasts 2, and Kravitz has assured Potterheads that the David Yates-directed sequel will lend Lestrange a lot of time to grow and develop when it roars into theaters late next year...November 16, 2018

Fantastic Beasts 2 To Enter Production This Summer (x)

...despite having few details on the plot of this instalment, the Dope actress was desperate to once again work with director David Yates and author J. K. Rowling, who penned the first screenplay. Before the second Fantastic Beasts movie hits cinemas in 2018 fans can see Zoe in an array of projects, including TV series Big Little Lies and movie Rock That Body.

Zoe Kravitz and Eddie Redmayne improvised Fantastic Beasts 2 audition (x) (x) (x)

SnitchSeeker reporter Milo was on hand during the roundtable with the two actors, and asked about Zoe Kravitz's character, Leta Lestrange (yes, Bellatrix's in-laws). Redmayne revealed that when he auditioned with Kravitz for the role of Leta, they used a small scene from the second movie's script, written by J.K. Rowling, for it. The actor commented that he, like so many fans out there, tried to decipher more details out of those probably two pages of script to get clues about the second movie, out November 2018. (x) ...

SnitchSeeker: In that [final] scenes it forms the relationship between your characters... you have Leta 

Lestrange coming into it. Is that something we may see featured in the next film? 

Katherine Waterston: I mean, why wouldn't you put Zoe Kravitz in your movie? Also, what fresh hell is that 

to have her be any kind of competition for me? If I was dating someone, and she was interested in them, 

I'd probably be like 'just go do it! Live your life!' 

Eddie Redmayne: What was interesting, when we were auditioning with Zoe for that part - because she's just a photograph in this film - there was a scene from the next film, and we kind of saw a little about the next film. I was trying to pick apart this one scene to try to find different clues about where we could be going. You'll see her.

Update 14th March 2017 - new article:
Contactmusic: Zoe Kravitz: Leta Lestrange will be in more Fantastic Beasts movies