FANTASTIC BEASTS Director Confirms Franchise Has Been Put On Hold, Suggesting Story Will Be Left Unfinished

FANTASTIC BEASTS Director Confirms Franchise Has Been Put On Hold, Suggesting Story Will Be Left Unfinished

Fantastic Beasts director David Yates has confirmed the franchise is on hold after The Secrets of Dumbledore flopped, suggesting this story will never receive a proper resolution. Read on for details...

By JoshWilding - Sep 13, 2023 10:09 AM EST
Filed Under: Harry Potter
Source: SFFGazette.com

For a time, the Harry Potter franchise was Warner Bros.' biggest box office draw, with many comic book fans blaming its continued success on the DCU not being a priority for the studio during that period. After all, who needs superheroes when you have a Boy Wizard?

Regardless, it's been a long time since the final movie was released in 2011, and since then, we've seen the studio launch a prequel/spin-off series with the Fantastic Beasts movies. Unfortunately, that's proven to be something of a disappointment for those who eat, sleep, and breathe all things Potter. 

While Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was undeniably fun, the sequels suffered from a major decline in quality despite being written by Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling. The latest instalment, The Secrets of Dumbledore, attempted to put Hogwarts front and centre and retconned that big Dumbledore family reveal in an attempt to get the story back on track (and to get rid of troubled star Ezra Miller). 

It didn't really work and while there were once plans for at least two more movies to conclude this story, filmmaker David Yates has confirmed (via SFFGazette.com) that they've fallen by the wayside.

When Yates was asked if he'd return for a fourth instalment, he responded: "Do you know I started on 'Potter' in 2005? It's been an amazing journey, and we made the last one, 'The Secrets of Dumbledore,' through the pandemic, pre-vaccine. So we were shooting that movie without vaccines, and it took its toll, it was tough 'ol ride to get it all together."

"Huge affection, and a lovely group of people that I worked with, and I love all of them, but we haven't had a conversation since we finished it," the filmmaker added. "It's been about, 'Let's just park it and let's be done for awhile,' so never say never, I would say, but I'm very excited about moving on..."

With a Harry Potter TV series (which will reboot the franchise) on the way, it's obvious we aren't going to see what happened when Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald squared off. We know enough to fill in the gaps, but abandoning the story does a real disservice to Newt Scamander, in particular. 

The moment this prequel series moved away from the Magizoologist, it started going downhill, and we'll forever look at the franchise and wonder, "How much more successful would it have been if theyd kept the spotlight on those Fantastic Beasts?"

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Forthas
Forthas - 9/13/2023, 10:08 AM
Is there any Cinematic Tentpole that Warner Brothers has not ruined. If not for Dune, The Batman, and to a lesser extent Joker, there is not one upcoming production of any interest.
Nolanite
Nolanite - 9/13/2023, 10:17 AM
@Forthas - forgot Barbie. God only knows how many of those well be getting in no time.
SheepishOne
SheepishOne - 9/13/2023, 10:08 AM
I always felt like Yates was the "safest" director from the franchise. Not that he was bad by any means. But I never felt like he had a distinct vision or aesthetic. He seemed like he'd be the most agreeable, which is probably why he was asked back so many times.

I always preferred Alfonso's vision over the rest of them, though I could appreciate where Chris Columbus was coming from with his more traditional and conservative view of Hogwarts. Even Mike Newell had an interesting flair with Goblet of Fire, especially in his depiction of the graveyard scene with Voldemort's reintroduction. My problems with that movie had more to do with how much plot was cut from the book for time. But I still really enjoyed his vision.

Yates was the least interesting, imo.
Usernametaken
Usernametaken - 9/13/2023, 12:00 PM
@SheepishOne - I still can't believe those idiots cut the entire backstory of voldemort and still spent half a movie on harry, hermione and ron camping in the middle of nowhere with nothing happening.

Made no sense.
Nightwing1015
Nightwing1015 - 9/13/2023, 3:34 PM
@SheepishOne - No he did have a distinct vision and visual style. It just so happened that the style was desaturated, ugly and shitty :(
SheepishOne
SheepishOne - 9/13/2023, 4:17 PM
@Nightwing1015 - Too true. Especially Half Blood Prince. He just doubled down on it to the point where I have to adjust my TV's brightness and contrast just to see what's going on.
GhostDog
GhostDog - 9/13/2023, 10:09 AM
Order66
Order66 - 9/13/2023, 10:15 AM
Fantastic Beasts should have never been made first of all. They obviously were more concerned with the war between Dumbledore and Grindewald. That’s what the prequel movies should have been 100% focused on, the first wizard war. Not try to shoehorn fantastic beasts in between the war.
zeon00
zeon00 - 9/13/2023, 10:57 AM
@Order66 - it should have been about the Fantastic Beast
SheepishOne
SheepishOne - 9/13/2023, 11:54 AM
@Order66 - I still say they should have just done an anthology trilogy based around the school textbooks:

1) Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them - drop all of the Credence stuff and just make it a movie about Newt's journey in discovering new beasts and saving them from an infamous poacher.

2) Quidditch Through the Ages - A magical sports underdog movie about a Quidditch World Cup or something similar. Could have been really cool.

3) Hogwarts: A History - a movie about the founding of Hogwarts and the drama which ensued between the founders and Salazar Slytherin.

Those would have gathered much more interest imo. And you could always do a sequel if one of them was particularly successful, instead of committing to like 5 unfocused movies about Newt but also not really about Newt.
Order66
Order66 - 9/13/2023, 12:06 PM
@SheepishOne - that is actually a really good idea. Self contained stories that you can one off it and move on.
Clintthahamster
Clintthahamster - 9/13/2023, 12:06 PM
@SheepishOne - You're hired!
Oberlin4Prez
Oberlin4Prez - 9/13/2023, 10:29 AM
Please go away David Yates. The least creative Harry Potter Director. It's honestly astounding to me he got to direct 7 movies. Of course the scripts for the last 3 weren't his fault but he seems like a Rowling yes man which is probably why he was allowed to continue on.
Matador
Matador - 9/13/2023, 10:31 AM
Thought that third movie was already the end of that story and it one was boring as hell.

DocSpock
DocSpock - 9/13/2023, 10:43 AM


Never saw any of them. Never read the books. And yet my life seems full.

Clintthahamster
Clintthahamster - 9/13/2023, 12:58 PM
@DocSpock - And at this point, there's no reason to. I picked it up when it was fresh in the zeitgeist, since literally everyone in my friend group were reading them, but they are so-so books, adapted into so-so films (with the exception of Cuarón's Prisoner of Azkhaban, which is probably the best of the lot.)
DocSpock
DocSpock - 9/13/2023, 4:46 PM
@ClintThaHamster -

I was already over 40 when the Potter thing hit. Neither of my daughters cared anything about it, so I dodged the whole thing.

bkmeijer1
bkmeijer1 - 9/13/2023, 11:01 AM
"the sequels suffered from a major decline in quality despite being written by Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling."

Maybe that wasn't "despite", but "because". The first one had a pretty linear story, but the other two jumped around way too much (like a book does).

As for doing a disservice to Newt, that was already the case with the second one. He got sidelined, just like the titular Fantastic Beasts.
mountainman
mountainman - 9/13/2023, 11:04 AM
@bkmeijer1 - Yeah. I actually liked the first one, but the 2nd and 3rd were both bad. Combining the Newt/beasts story with the Dumbledore/Grindlewald story just made it far too disjointed.
SheepishOne
SheepishOne - 9/13/2023, 11:56 AM
@bkmeijer1 - Turning the Fantastic Beasts movies into Dumbledore/Grindlewald movies was always a baffling choice. Don't make no sense.
bkmeijer1
bkmeijer1 - 9/13/2023, 2:24 PM
@mountainman @SheepishOne - I think it could've worked if they just made it like Infinity War, but instead of Infinity Stones, the villain is looking for legendary beasts to enact his master plan.

That way Newt can always be front and centre by having him race to protect those animals (with the help of the Hogwarts dudes) No idea if that checks out canon-wise though
WakandanQueen
WakandanQueen - 9/13/2023, 11:22 AM
With these films, the play and the success of the videogame she had no influence on, Rowling proved the franchise is actually better off without her involvement time and time again...
WhatIfRickJames
WhatIfRickJames - 9/13/2023, 11:34 AM
Sounds like they’re focusing those resources on the HP reboot or whatever they’re proposing moving forward.

The last movie wasn’t terrible but it wasn’t exciting enough to warrant a fourth film.
NoAssemblyReqd
NoAssemblyReqd - 9/13/2023, 11:43 AM
The failure of FANTASTIC BEASTS just showed that some fantasy worlds are boring when not seen through the eyes of an outsider protagonist.
dracula
dracula - 9/13/2023, 11:50 AM
Fantastic beasts should have been a one off and the dumbledore stuff should have been its own trilogy
ThorArms
ThorArms - 9/13/2023, 11:56 AM
I never saw these, but it's pretty messed up for such a high profile franchise to be left hanging like that.
KaptainKhaos
KaptainKhaos - 9/13/2023, 11:57 AM
Maybe it's because nerds finally got laid and nobody cares about Harry Potter anymore
ModHaterSLADE
ModHaterSLADE - 9/13/2023, 12:09 PM
Not surprising. Never saw Newt as being interesting enough to need multiple films.
bobevanz
bobevanz - 9/13/2023, 12:42 PM
Lol what story
TheOtherOn
TheOtherOn - 9/13/2023, 12:55 PM





MovieMonster
MovieMonster - 9/13/2023, 1:02 PM
I never found Newt to be an interesting character. The main focus should have been young Dumbledore and Grindelwald from the get-go. I didn't see the last one as I tapped out after the second.

The Wizarding World is still rich and there are other stories that can make good movies. WB should just one-off films about things like Aurors, the Marauders, or the Founders of Hogwarts. Instead, they're just going to re-adapt the books as a series which doens't sound like a good idea.
OrgasmicPotatoe
OrgasmicPotatoe - 9/13/2023, 1:06 PM
Great, they dragged it out back and put it out of its misery instead of letting it suffer on and on.

Fantastic Beasts and Dumbledore/Grindelwald should have been two different series. They could have made trilogies of both, hell maybe evn a Quidditch Through the Ages one too.

I know i'm in the minority and it definitely won't happen, but i'd be willing to pretend this series doesn't exist and just start over fresh with a new Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
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