Harry Potter spin off suffers major blow as director explains franchise's future
Fans of the Harry Potter spin-off Fantastic Beasts film series have been delivered a blow by being told by the franchise director that there are currently no plans for future films in the series.
The magical movies were set almost 100 years before the events of the main Harry Potter series of books and films and focused on Eddie Redmayne's character Newt Scamander - the fictional author of the Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them handbook. The film series based on the one-off guidebook, written by JK Rowling in 2001, also delved into the history of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry headmaster Albus Dumbledor and his arch nemesis, Gellert Grindelwald.
Originally, it was suggested there would be five films in the Fantastic Beasts series, but it seems Warner Bros have put the breaks on any future instalments after the third film in the series flopped at the box office. Now David Yates, who directed all three Fantastic Beasts films as well as four of the eight Harry Potter films, has said there are no plans to make more.
Opening up to the Inside Total Film podcast, the 60-year-old director explained: “We’re all so proud of [2022’s Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore] and when it went out into the world, we just needed to sort of stop and pause and take it easy.
It appeared to be the end of the line for the Fantastic Beasts film franchise (Warner Bros. Pictures)“With Beasts, it’s all just parked. We made those three movies, we made the last one through a pandemic, and it was enormous fun but it was tough. We were actually filming when there wasn’t a vaccine. Thank goodness no one got sick, but we did have the most detailed protocols in place.”
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He also suggested that author JK, 58, had stepped out of her boundaries by suggesting there could be five films. In an unprecedented and seemingly condescending swipe at the celebrated author, David said: “The idea that there were going to be five [Fantastic Beasts] films was a total surprise to most of us.
“Jo just mentioned it spontaneously, at a press screening once. We were presenting some clips of FB1 [Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them]. We’d all signed up for FB1, very enthusiastically. And Jo, bless her, came on … and Jo said, ‘Oh, by the way, there’s five of them.’ And we all looked at each other because no one had told us there were going to be five. We’d sort of committed to this one. So that was the first we’d heard of it.”
The Fantastic Beasts films began in 2016 with the release of Fantastic Beast and Where To Find Them which pulled in an impressive $814 million (£671 million) at the box office. But the sequel films had less success, with second film The Crimes of Grindelwald drawing $654 million (£539 million) and The Secrets of Dumbledore bringing home just $407 million (£335 million).
The film series was also dogged by unflattering headlines due to the controversial behaviour of key cast members. Grindelwald actor Johnny Depp drew a negative reaction from cinema goers when his abusive marriage to Amber Heard made headlines - while Credence Barebone actor Ezra Miller caused further embarrassment to the franchise when he was accused of a string of crimes including assault, burglary, disorderly conduct, harassment, and grooming of minors.
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