Fantastic Beasts 4

[Walts Ghost]

Four ‘Fantastic Beasts’ Sequels Announced

It’s no secret that Warner Bros wants to reignite the Harry Potter franchise with Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them. Today at the Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them fan event, author J.K. Rowling announced that they were making five Fantastic Beasts movies in total. Hit the jump for more details on the Fantastic Beasts sequels.


We’ve always known that the studio was planning to make multiple movies, and we’ve even heard that a sequel has already been written by J.K. Rowling herself and is scheduled to hit theaters in November 2018. But what we didn’t know was how many Fantastic Bests movies they were planning.

If we’re looking at the release pattern, this probably means we’ll see the third Fantastic Beasts in Holiday 2020, a fourth film two years later in 2022 and the fifth and final movie in 2024. Of course, none of those release dates have been confirmed by Warner Bros. The studio does have the November 20th, 2020 date flagged for an “Untitled WB Event Film.” This is an even bigger show of confidence than

This is an even bigger show of confidence than the Avatar series, which has four sequels already announced. Sure, the Harry Potter franchise has a huge fanbase, but we haven’t even seen if those fans will connect with the story and characters in Fantastic Beasts, which hits theaters November 18th, 2016.

Are Harry Potter fans excited about this announcement? I know when I used to write about the Potter films the stories would be heavily trafficked but none of the Fantastic Beasts coverage seem to move the needle. But maybe that’s because it’s more of an unknown quantity. I’m sure it will be different once fans begin to see the movie.

Here is the official information for Fantastic Beasts:

Academy Award winner Eddie Redmayne (“The Theory of Everything”) stars in the central role of wizarding world magizoologist Newt Scamander, under the direction of David Yates, who helmed the last four HARRY POTTER blockbusters. The film also stars Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Ezra Miller, Samantha Morton, Jon Voight, Ron Perlman, Carmen Ejogo and Colin Farrell. The film was produced by David Heyman, J.K. Rowling, Steve Kloves and Lionel Wigram.

FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM opens in 1926 as Newt Scamander has just completed a global excursion to find and document an extraordinary array of magical creatures. Arriving in New York for a brief stopover, he might have come and gone without incident…were it not for a No-Maj (American for Muggle) named Jacob, a misplaced magical case, and the escape of some of Newt’s fantastic beasts, which could spell trouble for both the wizarding and No-Maj worlds.

The film marks the screenwriting debut of J.K. Rowling, whose beloved HARRY POTTER books were adapted into the top-grossing film franchise of all time. Her script was inspired by the Hogwarts textbook FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM, written by her character Newt Scamander.

[Foggy]

Oh flipping heck, 5 of these? I thought Rowling was only up for a trilogy?

[Walts Ghost]

Originally Posted by Foggy

Oh flipping heck, 5 of these? I thought Rowling was only up for a trilogy?

She ended up writing a treatment for five films. I trust Rowling enough to give her the benefit of the doubt here. If she really believes this is worth telling as a five part story, then I'm willing to jump on board. Better they did this in the writing process than figuring it out on the fly while shooting like The Hobbit did.

[jacobsever]

Padding to wait long enough until Cursed Child could be a possibility.

[imsounoriginal]

WB thirsty for franchises.... the thirst is REAL.

[ArrestedDevelopment]

Do we really need threads for each sequel? The first movie hasn't even come out yet lmao. This is potentially years down the road.

[Doctor Jack]

[walruswarrior]

She always overwrites. Not that I'm complaining. All you have to do is look at Order of the Phoenix.

[Doctor Jack]

Originally Posted by walruswarrior

She always overwrites. Not that I'm complaining. All you have to do is look at Order of the Phoenix.

Order is perfect. No overwriting. That books would not be as good if it wasn't as long. There is nothing I would want cut out.

[dgoswald]

The length of OoTP (the book) wasn't an issue imo. It was more how pedestrian it all was, especially after the high of GoF.

[Troll2fan]

Originally Posted by dgoswald

The length of OoTP (the book) wasn't an issue imo. It was more how pedestrian it all was, especially after the high of GoF.

I found OoTP to be a much better book than GoF. Phoenix is actually my second favorite book of the series behind DH.

[imsounoriginal]

4 and 5 are my least-favorite books, 5 edging out 4 to the bottom. Ironically 5 might be my favorite movie, though.

[The Mad Kiwi]

Order of the Phoenix is my 2nd favorite book after Deathly Hallows, but even I have to admit the first third of it goes on forever. Things pick up nicely once we get to Hogwarts, though, and of course the last third's an absolute roller coaster. Rowling's gone on record saying she's aware Order of the Phoenix is too long and that she was reluctant to edit it down because she felt she needed to make up for all the time that passed between it and Goblet of Fire.

As for Fantastic Beasts, I'm okay with this. Like Walts Ghost said, it's better for them to map it out now in the story development stage than to haphazardly make it so after filming ala The Hobbit.

Rowling said during a Q&A today on Twitter that once we realize the story she's really telling, we'll understand why she needed five films instead of three. I'm willing to bet she's going to bring the story of Dumbledore and Grindelwald into this along with other original series characters' backstories (McGonagall's is amazing and deserves to be filmed). Since Harry himself was born in 1980, maybe films 2-5 cover the 30s-70s. With Yates confirmed for the first two, it would be funny if this ended up as a reversal of the original series in terms of directors: Mike Newell for film 3, Alfonso Cuaron for film 4, Chris Columbus for film 5.

As others have noted, spacing these films out two years at a time means that once it's over, the kids from the original series will be the exact age needed for Cursed Child (yes, I know Radcliffe's reluctant to do it, but give him 10 years and then ask him again).

[Edword]

Guess we're in for a ride for the next 8 years Let's just hope I end up liking the first one.

[dgoswald]

Originally Posted by Troll2fan

I found OoTP to be a much better book than GoF. Phoenix is actually my second favorite book of the series behind DH.

For me, it was when the magic began to fade. If we're ranking, I'd put PoA, PS, followed by CoS and GoF on equal footing, ending with OoTP, DH, and HBP. They're still great books for what they were written to be.

[imsounoriginal]

HBP is really a fantastic book and should've been a slam-dunk movie, but it's the most frustrating one of the series. The main reason I'm really looking forward to the FB movies is because now we won't have books to compare these to, so even though these are prequels, it'll be brand-new stories that we know pretty much nothing about.

[dgoswald]

Originally Posted by imsounoriginal

HBP is really a fantastic book and should've been a slam-dunk movie, but it's the most frustrating one of the series. The main reason I'm really looking forward to the FB movies is because now we won't have books to compare these to, so even though these are prequels, it'll be brand-new stories that we know pretty much nothing about.

Same here. It'll be a nice change not knowing what's going to transpire in the cinematic adaptation of a Rowling-penned story.