The Wizarding World is currently going through a major facelift; unfortunately, it’s not one that anyone actually asked for. Warner Bros. surprised fans when it announced the development of a Harry Potter TV reboot, and with the show finally gaining traction, there doesn’t seem to be any room in the franchise for anything else.
HBO’s Potter series is currently the only project on the Wizarding World slate. That doesn’t bode well for the Fantastic Beasts series, which had been in limbo during the two years since The Secrets of Dumbledore struggled at the box office. Once positioned as the franchise's potential future, the film saga has faced an uphill battle for years. Though its first entry found some success in 2016, two middling sequels and a slew of behind-the-scenes controversies crippled any forward momentum.
J.K. Rowling, the controversial steward of Fantastic Beasts, once envisioned a five-film franchise, but after its third installment failed to make a real impact, WB put the saga on hold. With a new series taking shape, has Warner Bros. officially abandoned Fantastic Beasts? The studio hasn’t officially canceled the saga, but recent comments from the cast and crew certainly seem to confirm its demise.
Fantastic Beasts began as a lower-stakes offshoot of the Wizarding World, following magizoologist Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) on his misadventures in muggle society. As the story continued, its scope grew to include powerful wizards like Gellert Grindelwald (first played by Johnny Depp, then Mads Mikkelsen) and a young Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law). Law has been outspoken about his fascination with Dumbledore, but in a recent interview with Variety, he revealed that his days playing the enigmatic wizard are likely over.
“I know it’s certainly on hold,” Law said of the Fantastic Beasts series. “My guess would be that, now that they’re doing Harry Potter as a TV show, they’ll probably put their energy into that. I certainly haven’t heard that there’s anything on the horizon.”
Redmayne recently echoed Law’s assumptions. While promoting his upcoming series Day of the Jackal, the actor suggested that The Secrets of Dumbledore would be the last Fantastic Beasts film.
“I think [fans] probably have [seen the last of Newt],” Redmayne told ComicBook. “That was a very frank answer, but yeah. And that’s as far as I know. I mean, you’d have to speak to the people at Warner Bros. and J.K Rowling, but as far as I know, that’s it.”
It’s a disappointing update for fans, but the fate of Fantastic Beasts feels like the inevitable conclusion for a bloated film series. It’s been a long time since the Wizarding World felt magical, and that has a lot to do with Rowling’s continued involvement. Many fans have moved on from Harry Potter in recent years, and the Fantastic Beasts films weren’t quite enough to spark renewed interest. Whether the Harry Potter reboot can succeed remains to be seen, but this might be the last chance for the franchise to reassert its relevance.
