Fantastic Beasts Director Addresses the Current Status of Harry Potter Prequels

Last year saw the release of Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, a movie that was meant to be the third chapter of a five-part series, though director of all three Fantastic Beasts films David Yates recently confirmed that he hasn’t heard any updates about the franchise’s future from Warner Bros. The last update fans have gotten about the Wizarding World was that HBO was developing a TV reboot of the original Harry Potter books, but based on all three Fantastic Beasts films earning underwhelming critical and financial reception, many reports have claimed that the final two films in that franchise will be scrapped entirely.

“With Beasts, it’s all just parked. 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,” Yates shared with Total Film, per GamesRadar, about the current hold on the franchise. “We’re all so proud of [Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore] and when it went out into the world, we just needed to sort of stop and pause, and take it easy.”

With the Harry Potter franchise, it was established that each film would chronicle the events of one book, with the exception being the final book being broken up into two films. Yates claimed that he was oblivious to the idea that Fantastic Beasts would ultimately be five films, despite this seemingly being the plan from writer J.K. Rowling from the beginning.

“The idea that there were going to be five films was a surprise to most of us,” Yates admitted. “[Rowling] 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 [Rowling], I haven’t spoken to [producer] David Heyman, I haven’t spoken to Warner Bros; we’re just taking a pause. It’s quite nice. It allows me to do stuff like [Netflix’s Pain Hustlers].”

In addition to having directed all three Fantastic Beasts films, Yates also directed four Harry Potter movies, so whether he will return to the Wizarding World again is currently unknown.

Stay tuned for updates on the Wizarding World.

Are you hoping we get two more Fantastic Beasts movies? Let us know in the comments!