HARRY POTTER Director David Yates Confirms FANTASTIC BEASTS Franchise Has Been "Parked" By Warner Bros.

HARRY POTTER Director David Yates Confirms FANTASTIC BEASTS Franchise Has Been "Parked" By Warner Bros.

This shouldn't come as a huge surprise after the critical and commercial response to the last couple of Fantastic Beasts movies, but the franchise has indeed been put on hold at Warner Bros. Check it out!

By JoshWilding - Oct 28, 2023 03:10 AM EST
Filed Under: Harry Potter
Source: Total Film (via SFFGazette.com)

The Harry Potter franchise was once Warner Bros.' biggest draw, and as the studio continued to focus all its attention on the Boy Wizard, franchises like the DC Universe largely fell by the wayside (hence why they later tried to rush into a shared world). 

It's been a long time since the final Potter movie was released back in 2011, and since then, the studio has attempted to launch a prequel/spin-off series with the Fantastic Beasts movies. Unfortunately, those proved to be something of a disappointment for fans 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 Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling penning the screenplays. The latest instalment, The Secrets of Dumbledore, looked to put Hogwarts front and centre and attempted some damage control (goodbye, Ezra Miller) to get the series back on the right track after the bizarre - and quickly retconned - Dumbledore family reveal everyone hated.

It didn't work and while there were once plans for at least two more movies to conclude this story, filmmaker David Yates has told Total Film (via SFFGazette.com) that making five instalments was never the plan when he signed on. As for the franchise itself, it's been shelved for the time being. 

"With 'Beasts,' it’s all just parked," he explains. "We made those three movies, 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. Thankfully, no one got sick, but we did have the most detailed protocols in place."

"We’re all so proud of ['Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore'] and when it went out into the world," Yates added, "we just needed to sort of stop and pause and take it easy." 

"The idea that there were going to be five films was a surprise to most of us. Jo just mentioned it spontaneously, at a press screening once. No one had told us there were going to be five, we’d committed to the first one. I’m sure at some point, we’ll be back."

"But yeah, I haven’t spoken to Jo, I haven’t spoken to [producer] David Heyman, I haven’t spoken to Warner Bros," the director concluded. "We’re just taking a pause. It’s quite nice. It allows me to do stuff like [Pain Hustlers]."

With a Harry Potter reboot coming to Max, it's doubtful we're ever going to see what happened when Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald squared off. We know enough to fill in the gaps ourselves, but abandoning the story does a real disservice to what could have been an epic battle and Newt Scamander, in particular. 

The moment this prequel series moved away from the Magizoologist, it started going downhill, and it's hard to not look at the franchise and wonder, "How much more successful would it have been had they kept the spotlight on those Fantastic Beasts?"

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MosquitoFarmer
MosquitoFarmer - 10/28/2023, 4:09 AM
Taonrey
Taonrey - 10/28/2023, 4:46 AM
Their first mistake was trying to make a series out of fantastic beasts
DocSpock
DocSpock - 10/28/2023, 5:03 AM

Pointless unfocused trash.

Good riddance.

OrgasmicPotatoe
OrgasmicPotatoe - 10/28/2023, 6:48 AM
As a HP fan, I dearly hope we never get another one of those godawful abominations.
Drace24
Drace24 - 10/28/2023, 6:29 PM
@OrgasmicPotatoe - As an HP fan, I hope we do get more stories about Newt. Just with a different director.
JustAWaffle
JustAWaffle - 10/28/2023, 7:28 AM
That last one was so boring I don’t even remember what it was about.
HashTagSwagg
HashTagSwagg - 10/28/2023, 11:41 AM
@JustAWaffle - Jude Law and Hannibal flung CGI at each other for about a minute and there some election fraud thing involving a reanimated goat, that's about it.
ShellHead
ShellHead - 10/28/2023, 8:20 AM
At least they had the benefit of showing a wider audience that JK Rowling is a bad writer
JustAWaffle
JustAWaffle - 10/28/2023, 11:19 AM
@ShellHead - She did produce a beloved set of characters and stories in the OG series, and it’s produced a cash cow that will take care of her and multiple generations beyond her. So she’s probably not THAT bad.

Our family is halfway through the 3rd HP book, and it’s s lot of fun.
Drace24
Drace24 - 10/28/2023, 6:28 PM
@ShellHead - She has written the most successful book series in history and a completely unrelated series of bestsellers under a pseudonym. Maybe she is not the best screenwriter specifically but even there I mostly blame David Yates who ruined the later Potter movies in much the same way as he did Fantastic Beasts. Only because Rowling has the most famous name in the credits doesn't mean everything is her fault.
IronSpider101
IronSpider101 - 10/28/2023, 11:07 AM
The problem is trying to make these movies too lore-heavy. They weirdly feel like they should be taking the current route of Star Wars and just start making other series' and movies in that universe but without the need to really tie it in to any greater narrative.

The live action monstery bits are fun, despite Eddie Redmayne, and kind of at times work as the live action Pokemon movie we should have gotten. As a one and done? That would've been fun. Let's see a series based on the job Ron's dad had ("Misuse of Muggle Artifacts") or an Auror procedural, etc. There's a million different, better, interesting ideas than rehashing the Voldemort plot or expanding upon the Grindelwald and Dumbledore stuff nobody cares about.
Izaizaiza
Izaizaiza - 10/28/2023, 11:28 AM
I can't remember if it was the second or the third one, but I stopped halfway through and never picked it up again
RitoRevolto
RitoRevolto - 10/28/2023, 1:14 PM
They oughta be canceled, they're bad.
Drace24
Drace24 - 10/28/2023, 6:00 PM
I will never understand why they kept the worst Potter director around the longest. David Yates just doesn't understand this world and his basic directorial decisions especially in Fb2 and 3 are just baffling to me.
Drace24
Drace24 - 10/28/2023, 6:05 PM
I really liked the first movie, mostly because of Newt who is now my favorite character in the entire Wizarding World. But I have to admit, the series just didn't work. They should have made the original Fantastic Beasts a stand-alone project and then adapted the rest into "The Life and Times of Albus Dumbledore" or something like that. Could have even featured Newt, but not as a main character. I love Newt as we don't see sensitive male protagonists like him that often, but it just wasn't his story.
NinnesMBC
NinnesMBC - 10/29/2023, 2:02 AM
They should at least greenlit a final film to properly wrap things up if they actually want to keep close that HP audience they want to make profit out from the reboot. Especially when your cast is full of good talent.
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