English actor Jude Law hints that the Fantastic Beasts franchise would have to be cut short in a magazine interview on 30 October.
Instead of five installments, the series looks like it would have to be cut short to three as Warner Bros. focuses on producing a TV series based on J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series.
“I know it’s certainly on hold,” Law said in the interview. “My guess would be that, now that they’re [Warner Bros.] 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.”
Law plays the young Albus Dumbledore in the franchise, which he played on the second and third installment of the Harry Potter prequels.
Fantastic Beasts was released in 2016, starting with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. As per series writer J.K. Rowling, the supposedly five-movie series plan of Fantastic Beasts is set about a century before the events that took place in the Harry Potter franchise.
The prequel follows the story of British wizard and “magizoologist” Newt Scamander, played by Eddie Redmayne. Scamander finds himself in a terrible situation as wizards are at war with muggles, in Europe, where the dark wizard Grindelwald is building an army.
Redmayne seconded Law’s statement in a separate interview, hinting that the series would have to end at three movies. “I think they probably have [seen the last of Newt],” Redmayne said. “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.”
In October last year, the series’ film director David Yates said in a podcast that the franchise was initially planned to be three films only. According to him, Rowling’s announcement of the five-film plan was not coordinated much with the production team. “The idea that there were going to be five films was a total surprise to most of us,” says Yates. “[Rowling] just mentioned it spontaneously, at a press screening once.”
Warner Bros has yet to release a statement to clarify plans for the movie franchise.