Over the weekend we learned that the Harry Potter spinoff Fantastic Beasts will be three movies, and from a production standpoint it may be similar to The Hobbit.
The news arrived via a New York Times profile on Warner Bros.’ CEO who is credited with talking author J.K. Rowling into this idea. “When I say he made ‘Fantastic Beasts’ happen, it isn’t P.R.-speak but the literal truth,” Rowling said. “We had one dinner, a follow-up telephone call, and then I got out the rough draft that I’d thought was going to be an interesting bit of memorabilia for my kids and started rewriting!”
The piece describes the plan for Fantastic Beasts as “three megamovies,” and immediately what came to mind when we read this was Warner Bros.’ The Hobbit – from a production standpoint.
Based on the book of the same name by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit adaptation began as two films before Warner and Jackson decided to split it into three. “It is only at the end of a shoot that you finally get the chance to sit down and have a look at the film you have made,” Jackson said in July 2012 when explaining this decision. “Recently Fran, Phil and I did just this when we watched for the first time an early cut of the first movie.”
While Jackson argued in his announcement that turning The Hobbit into a trilogy of films stemmed from the amount of material he shot, it’s very likely that Warner asked Jackson if it was possible to make it into three so more money could be made. They’re the studio behind splitting Deathly Hallows into two movies, after all – a move that was mirrored by the Twilight and Hunger Games finales.
The comparisons between The Hobbit and Fantastic Beasts are clear: One, adapting them was inspired by the success of the original stories (The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter). And two, the spinoff franchises are based on smaller books that aren’t exactly begging to be turned into three movies. Story wise they are different: Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts movie is being penned by the author start to finish, where as Jackson developed much of Tokien’s The Hobbit.
This is why we think that Fantastic Beasts will play out as such: After finding its director and cast, the story following Newt Scamander will shoot its three films back to back to back. They will be released one year apart from one another to keep momentum high. Sound familiar? This is what is happening with The Hobbit right now.
Here’s where it gets tricky: Is there room for more than three films? Although many publications are describing this weekend’s news as a “trilogy,” that description is not definitive if you go off of what was said in the report. The New York Times said three movies are planned, so it’s possible that a fourth or fifth film could happen if the first three are successful. The question is whether or not Rowling has a story for Newt that can span more than three films.
If not, it’s on to the next spinoff: Quidditch Through the Ages or Beedle the Bard. Shortly after announcing Fantastic Beasts, Warner grabbed copyrights for Rowling’s other two mini Wizarding World stories.
A release date for the first Fantastic Beasts movie hasn’t been set. If we were to guess, we’d say it’s at least two to three years away.