The third part of the Harry Potter spin-off about the Fantastic Beasts has been in the Netflix charts for a few days now. But we will probably never see the end of the story
At the beginning of the month, Netflix surprisingly added one of the biggest fantasy blockbusters of recent years to its catalog, which has been in the top 10 most popular films ever since. We are talking about Fantastic Beasts: Dumbledore’s Secrets, the third installment in the Harry Potter spin-off series.
In the sequel, Hogwarts principal Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) and the evil wizard Gellert Grindelwald (Mads Mikkelsen) clash in an epic duel, while the story of magizoologist Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) and his fantastic beasts is also retold
Things are looking very bad for Fantastic Beasts 4 and 5
Anyone who has watched the movie on Netflix will be asking themselves one question in particular: What happens next? Weren’t parts 4 and 5 of the Fantastic Beasts series also planned? Based on the current status, you shouldn’t get your hopes up that we will one day find out the end of the series
You can watch the trailer for Fantastic Beasts 3 here:
Yes, Fantastic Beasts was actually announced with five films. You weren’t imagining it. The original plan was for the story to cover the period 1925 to 1945 in the Wizarding World. However, since the launch of Part 3, there has been virtually no sign of life regarding the future of the series.
In April 2022, the industry magazine Variety wrote in a report that the continuation of Fantastic Beasts is dependent on the success of the third part. However, if we look at the box office results (via The Numbers ), we can clearly see a negative trend. Audience interest dwindled from film to film.
Part 1 grossed 812 million US dollars (budget: 180 million US dollars)
Part 2 grossed 648 million US dollars (budget: 200 million US dollars)
Part 3 grossed 405 million US dollars (budget: 200 million US dollars)
Even if we factor out the pandemic factor in Dumbledore’s Secrets, the trend cannot be denied: Where the Harry Potter films were able to consistently maintain a very high level at the box office (the last installment even grossed over a billion), the Fantastic Beasts series is in a nosedive.
The Fantastic Beasts series has been “parked “
When a Hollywood studio invests 200 million US dollars in the production of a film and also spends a no less considerable sum on marketing, expectations are much higher than for the 405 million US dollars that Dumbledore’s Crime grossed. The series is currently on hold
(Fantastic Beasts: Dumbledore’s Secrets)
In November 2022, Variety reported that Warner Bros. Discovery had no new films from the Harry Potter universe in development. This was confirmed by director David Yates, the director of the first three parts, at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2023, as Deadline notes.
Specifically, Yates said:
We haven’t had any conversations [about the future of the series] since the end [of Fantastic Beasts 3]. It was more like, ‘Let’s park it and stop doing it for a while.’ But I would never say never.
Although Yates left himself a backdoor with his statement, a month later he reiterated that the Fantastic Beasts series is “parked” (via Guardian ). This is the latest concrete update from any of the people involved. Warner Bros. Discovery, meanwhile, has shifted its focus to another Potter project.
Harry Potter is being remade as a series. The ambitious project is due to be launched in 2026. The plan is to cover each of J.K. Rowling’s seven books with one season. The franchise is thus saying goodbye to the continuity that has run through all the previous films and daring to make a completely new start.
