Fantastic Beasts 4 & 5 almost certainly won’t happen, but ultimately that’s best for the Wizarding World’s future. Fantastic Beasts seemed like a bad idea from the get-go: turning a small textbook from Harry Potter into not just a movie, but an entire franchise, was very much the move of a Hollywood increasingly obsessed with IPs and a studio who needed to maintain a huge cash-cow. However, the first movie, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, proved people wrong. It was a movie filled with great new characters, and captured the magic and wonder of the world.
Unfortunately, things would only get worse from there, both on screen and behind-the-scenes. On the former, the decision to include Johnny Depp’s Gellert Grindelwald as the major villain ensured this became a more full-on Harry Potter prequel, and the Fantastic Beasts charm was lost to future setup and convoluted storytelling. For the latter, the controversies surrounding Fantastic Beasts – with Depp, J.K. Rowling, and Ezra Miller, overshadowed the movies. By the time of Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore’s ending, there wasn’t much appetite for more. Fantastic Beasts 4 likely won’t happen, which makes a lot of sense – except for one thing.
More Fantastic Beasts Movies Would Be A Mistake For Harry Potter’s Future
The Wizarding World Is Better Without Fantastic Beasts
Director David Yates confirmed Fantastic Beasts 4 is on pause, but realistically that sounds like a permanent state. In terms of personal opinion, mileage may vary on how much the Fantastic Beasts movies succeeded or failed. But viewed more objectively, the franchise clearly wasn’t working, with neither critics nor audiences seeming particularly keen on more, at least based on its box office performance and various online metrics for reviews and ratings. The table below outlines its shifting fortunes.
| Movie | Worldwide Box Office | Rotten Tomatoes (Critics) | Rotten Tomatoes (Audiences) | Metacritic | IMDb |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them (2016) | $816,037,575 | 74% | 79% | 66 | 7.2 |
| FanTastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018) | $655,755,901 | 36% | 54% | 52 | 6.5 |
| Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore (2022) | $407,150,844 | 46% | 83% | 47 | 6.2 |
Fantastic Beasts was a tainted brand, but also one that was holding the Wizarding World back. The entire focus was on that franchise, which meant no other Harry Potter movies or shows happened, despite there being so many possible avenues that could be better. Indeed, it failed so much that WB is making the hardest pivot possible, remaking Harry Potter as a TV show for Max. There are myriad things that could go wrong with that, too, given the nostalgic love for the movies, but it’s also the most promising future Harry Potter has had in years.
Any Harry Potter prequel or spinoff is going to have to balance its own spinoff with larger franchise connections, and so far only the first Fantastic Beasts movie managed to achieve that equilibrium, and there’s little to suggest more would achieve it. More Fantastic Beasts, at this point, would just be flogging a dead thestral, and it’s better that Harry Potter moves on from it.
There’s a lot of untapped potential with Harry Potter as a whole, and indeed that should go beyond the Max remake too. That’s not to say WB should endlessly milk it for all it’s worth, but there are other stories worth telling. In particular, given the big screen wonder it’s delivered at its best, then it does need more movies. And, ideally, more stories at Hogwarts (the Marauders, perhaps), because that’s where the true magic of the series lies, and something Fantastic Beasts couldn’t recapture.
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore Actually Had A Fitting Ending
Most Fantastic Beasts Characters’ Arcs Have Been Wrapped Up
It actually works out that there’s unlikely to be a Fantastic Beasts 4 & 5, not only because of the issues outlined previously, but also because The Secrets of Dumbledore wrapped most things up. This was a more solid effort than Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, and while it certainly wasn’t perfect, it did have a sense of finality to it.
Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston), Queenie Goldstein (Alison Sudol), and Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler), the key members from Fantastic Beasts’ cast of characters (from whom the saga had deviated a little too much) all got fitting endings (even if Tina was MIA too much).
The story of Credence Barebone (Miller) being a Dumbledore was brought to a head in a way that was far better than seemed possible after The Crimes of Grindelwald. And it even addressed, finally, the relationship between Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) and Grindelwald (Mads Mikkelsen) and the feelings the former had for the latter. There is not a huge amount of story left to tell, so it works as an ending, except, of course, for the moment it was all building towards.
There’s Still One Fantastic Beasts Story That Needs To Be Told (But Is It Possible?)
What About Dumbledore & Grindelwald’s duel?!
Although it’s good that Fantastic Beasts 4 & 5 won’t happen, it does leave one problem. A major part of the five-movie plan was to build to Dumbledore and Grindelwald’s duel in 1945, something that The Secrets of Dumbledore further paved the way for (while revealing they had dueled prior to that). As it stands, the Fantastic Beasts plan is now out the window, which of course also means not actually getting to see the iconic Dumbledore vs. Grindelwald battle.
Given this is the two wizards in their prime, and is said to be one of the greatest duels in history, then it would be a missed opportunity to never see it. There’s a lot more potential with Wizarding duels than Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts movies have shown, and this would (if done right) rectify it and then some as one of the Wizarding World’s most impressive set-pieces. The wide array of spells, and how that could be captured on-screen with visual effects alongside intense and emotional performances from its two actors, could and should be great.
It’s still just about possible to pull off, but chances are slim. The only project confirmed right now is Max’s Harry Potter TV remake, which has no real need to include the duel in a flashback. Outside of Fantastic Beasts 4 & 5 happening, then it’d likely need a separate project – say, Dumbledore vs. Grindelwald: A Wizarding World Story – but whether there’s enough appetite for that remains to be seen, but is unlikely. The franchise is dead, but that sadly also means its biggest story won’t be told.
Other Wizarding World Stories Worth Telling
The Wizarding World Can Explore More Beyond Dumbledore And Potter
The Wizarding World is a sprawling universe that the movies have only just scratched the surface of. There have been rumors that Warner Bros. wants to actually buy J. K. Rowling out of the property (via Inside The Magic), which would allow the studio to tell stories that aren’t just adaptations of what she’s already written, and would allow other writers to pen new stories set in the world.
Because the Fantastic Beasts movies weren’t based on existing novels, Rowling wrote or co-wrote each of those scripts. But, Warner Bros. could potentially move beyond Rowling’s focus on Harry Potter and the characters directly connected to him to more thoroughly explore the world.
Among the subjects mentioned but not explored by Rowling in her Wizarding World property are other magical schools. Hogwarts has been the primary focus when it comes to a magical education because her stories are centered on characters in the United Kingdom. There are, however, magic schools all over the world according to her own lore with a wealth of different specialties. Any one of those schools, in a different time period, with a new protagonist, could make for a great setting for a new generation of fans.
Fantastic Beasts’ exploration of the past also might prove to be the right way to go for the franchise, though just in a new place and with new faces. Fans have been quick to point out the continuity errors in the Fantastic Beasts movies because of their ties to Harry Potter, like McGonagall working at Hogwarts decades before she should have. Heading to the 1800s or the 1950s or yet another time period in a different country could go a long way in expanding the world without having to worry about conflicting with the timeline.
Of course, there are also those fans who would prefer a very specific Harry Potter prequel. The adventures of James Potter and his friends while they attend Hogwarts have piqued the interest of fans since Harry was privy to flashbacks to his father’s time at school. They attended Hogwarts in the 1970s and appear to be some of the coolest kids in school. There’s also the love story between James and Lilly – despite her initially not liking him.
A magical rom-com of a prequel would delight a specific subset of Harry Potter fans and give something very different from Fantastic Beasts to the audience.
