FANTASTIC BEASTS Star Eddie Redmayne Isn't Sure We're Getting Another Movie After THE SECRETS OF DUMBLEDORE

FANTASTIC BEASTS Star Eddie Redmayne Isn't Sure We're Getting Another Movie After THE SECRETS OF DUMBLEDORE

Eddie Redmayne has played Newt Scamander across three Fantastic Beasts movies, but after the latest instalment underperformed, the actor admits he isn't sure what comes next for the Harry Potter prequel...

By JoshWilding - Oct 20, 2022 10:10 PM EST
Filed Under: Harry Potter
Source: IndieWire (via SFFGazette.com)

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was a box office hit when it was released in 2016, earning positive reviews and heaps of praise from Harry Potter fans. Unfortunately, the franchise took a step backwards with The Crimes of Grindelwald, a mostly awful sequel that shifted focus to Albus Dumbledore's complicated family history. 

While The Secrets of Dumbledore was a minor improvement, the majority of moviegoers had lost interest by that stage, and the movie simply wasn't good enough to guarantee the story will continue. 

The original plan was for the stories of Newt Scamander, Albus Dumbledore, and Gellert Grindelwald to play out over five movies, but even a fourth chapter seems unlikely now. That means this tale will potentially never get a definitive ending, and star Eddie Redmayne seems similarly doubtful about the franchise's future.

IndieWire (via SFFGazette.com) asked him if he knows anything about Fantastic Beasts 4 and the actor replied, "I don’t. It’s more a question for J. K. Rowling and David Yates and Warners, but I don’t know, I’m afraid. I can’t add to that. I love playing Newt, he’s a sweet man."

Sadly, Newt has been sidelined for the most part since that first outing and no longer feels like the star of his own franchise. That may explain why Redmayne seems pretty nonplussed about where things go from here, though it's clear Warner Bros.' decision to shift focus to familiar faces and locales isn't having the desired effect. 

The charm of that first movie has been lost as the series has progressed, with fantastic beasts shoehorned in as little more than an afterthought. It's a real pity, and with J.K. Rowling becoming an increasingly controversial figure among some people online, we wouldn't be shocked if the Harry Potter franchise as a whole is sidelined for a while moving forward.

Would you like the Fantastic Beasts franchise to continue? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section. 

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web3d
web3d - 10/20/2022, 10:00 PM
oh noooo.
thunderpun573
thunderpun573 - 10/20/2022, 10:10 PM
Good that series [frick]in blows. Also [frick] JK Rowling
zeon00
zeon00 - 10/20/2022, 11:17 PM
@thunderpun573 - biology is real
kider2
kider2 - 10/20/2022, 10:11 PM
This series isn't even about "fantastic Beasts" or Newt anymore. At this point just end this movies and rename the last two something like Dumbledore: The Wizard War. Might save the franchise. It would be a better move than trying to force a random fantasy animal into the movies anyway.
Ha1frican
Ha1frican - 10/20/2022, 10:14 PM
I’d want at least one more to act as the episode 3 that wraps up the story and links to the later movies. Give me Grindelwald going to Azkaban and Tom Riddle and Hagrid showing up at Hogwarts
GhostDog
GhostDog - 10/20/2022, 10:34 PM
Did these movies ruin his career? They’re ass but he’s also especially not good in these.
TheSuperMex
TheSuperMex - 10/20/2022, 10:45 PM
He first movie was good. They dropped the ball hard in part 2. It killed the series. People didn’t go see part 3. David Yates should have not directed and Rowling shouldn’t have written the script. They should semi-reboot the FB movies and make movies about Dumbledore’s and Grindelwald’s life as teens to when they fight. A founding four movie would be cool.
SirDuckAlot
SirDuckAlot - 10/20/2022, 10:49 PM
Never seen any of them and don't care.
marvel72
marvel72 - 10/21/2022, 8:33 AM
@SirDuckAlot -

1stDalek
1stDalek - 10/20/2022, 10:55 PM
Last one closed the story rather well; everyone got together and had a happy ending. It felt rather final for the characters, now they can just move on and do the war series they've been itching to adapt for 2/3rds of this franchise.
RitoRevolto
RitoRevolto - 10/20/2022, 11:03 PM
We really don't need another. We've spent enough time in the "Wizarding World." Time to move on.
ShimmyShimmyYA
ShimmyShimmyYA - 10/20/2022, 11:28 PM
Just make a cursed child adaptation and let’s be done with this
OrgasmicPotatoe
OrgasmicPotatoe - 10/21/2022, 2:34 AM
@ShimmyShimmyYA - Cursed child adaptation ? Haven't we suffered enough as it is ?
SheepishOne
SheepishOne - 10/21/2022, 12:02 AM
I still think the direction they took with these was maybe the least interesting and muddied way of telling these stories.

After the hype and delivery from Deathly Hallows Pt 2, if they wanted to do a Fantastic Beasts film, they should have dropped the Grindelwald story altogether and focused on Newt's story. He's a really interesting character, but they're trying to make him too much of a hero. A bit of heroism is good, but Newt should be more involved with exploratory journeys rather than good vs evil.

If it were me, I would have kept Fantastic Beasts as a standalone film, and taken the Star Wars approach with the Grindelwald story. Have a Grindelwald/Dumbledore trilogy be its own thing and inter-release standalone films every other year based on the wizard textbook curriculum.

So, you'd have something like:

1. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
2. Albus Dumbledore and the Unbreakable Vow (the story of Dumbledore meeting Grindelwald and watching him turn to darkness, ending in Dumbledore becoming a professor at Hogwarts)
3. Quidditch Through the Ages (a standalone quidditch movie about some underdog team who makes it to the World Cup, narrated by Rupert Grint as Ron recounting the story)
4. Albus Dumbledore and the Curse of Grindelwald (Grindelwald's rise to power)
5. Hogwarts: A History (the story of the founding of Hogwarts)
6. Albus Dumbledore and the Wizarding War (culmination of Grindelwald's story and his ultimate defeat)

And you could really keep going indefinitely with smaller-budget movies based on things like:

Tales of Beedle the Bard
Gilderoy Lockhart's Magical Me (either the "true" story of Lockhart taking credit for all sorts of fantastical things, or a satirical telling as if Lockhart had actually done all of these things, like a magical Forest Gump movie)
The Standard Book of Spells (could be a series, with each "grade" being the next season, sort of like a lower-stakes Harry Potter series not following any of the trio)

The potential is (was) endless. But trying to shove everything into Fantastic Beasts movies ultimately left them unfocused to the point where we lost interest.
OrgasmicPotatoe
OrgasmicPotatoe - 10/21/2022, 6:54 AM
@SheepishOne - I wish we had a Quidditch through the ages film ! Smaller scale, more personal stakes rather than world ending stuff. Love the idea of Ron narrating it.

Considering what they did with FB though, maybe it's better they don't try it.
SheepishOne
SheepishOne - 10/21/2022, 9:02 AM
@OrgasmicPotatoe - It might sound blasphemous, but I think Rowling should have been more of a consultant on Fantastic Beasts and let someone else write it. It was her first screenplay, after all. She goes from that right into telling the story of Grindelwald. I think she's a brilliant writer with the HP books, but I don't think her abilities as a screenwriter were refined well enough to take on that story.

A part of me wished she had just written a prequel series of books and let someone adapt them into films later.

OrgasmicPotatoe
OrgasmicPotatoe - 10/21/2022, 10:19 AM
@SheepishOne - 100% agreed. Just goes to show how different it is writing a book vs. writing a film.
Timerider84
Timerider84 - 10/21/2022, 12:21 AM
Jude Law is too busy doing Star Wars Skeleton Crew for Disney.
SonOfAGif
SonOfAGif - 10/21/2022, 12:57 AM
Eddie Redmayne would make an interesting Nightcrawler.
marvel72
marvel72 - 10/21/2022, 8:35 AM
@SonOfAGif - interesting choice, wouldn't have thought of him.
OrgasmicPotatoe
OrgasmicPotatoe - 10/21/2022, 2:41 AM
Hopefully that's true. That trainwreck of a franchise was going nowhere fast. FB should have been a single movie, one and done, not devolve into another world ending plot. Dumbledore/Grindelwald deserved their own franchise.

Also, please keep David Yates as far away as possible from this franchise. The man sucks all the magic out of the wizarding world.

Last time I watched the Potter movies, I still wanted more after DH2. I gave the first FB another chance. Boy did I regret it. I guess eight movies is plenty enough.
Kumkani
Kumkani - 10/21/2022, 6:40 AM
Redmayne fell off so hard as an actor. Don't think he's had a good prolific role in ages.
RafaelTorres
RafaelTorres - 10/21/2022, 7:24 AM
Crimes of Grindelwald was appalling, somehow Secrets of Dumbledore was even worse. People praised Mads Mikkleson but his Grindelwald sent me to sleep, a boring character with an equally dull performance. Johnny Depp should retire from acting but honestly I felt he was better in CoG. David Yates is a menace to the wizarding world and this series at this point, even though his Potter movies were fantastic. Have no idea how all of the creatives involved in this series have deteriorated so much. WB needs to give Harry Potter a rest for a looooong time until someone who actually cares about this series has a good idea again.
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