Fantastic Beasts screenwriter (oh and Harry Potter author) J.K. Rowling has tweeted that the upcoming Wizarding World spinoff starring Eddie Redmayne will be the start of a movie series.
In a tweet in which she sets the record straight about Harry Potter and the Cursed Child being a play (not a movie!), Rowling also confirms that Fantastic Beasts will be a story told over three movies:
You heard wrong, I'm afraid. #CursedChild is a play. #FantasticBeasts will be 3 movies, though! https://t.co/7tvw4rolcR
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) February 29, 2016
I saw this tweet yesterday and hesitated to write anything about it because we’ve known that this was going to be a three-part tale since March 2014.
It seems like a lot of people actually missed that tidbit of information two years ago, hence the existence of this article. With that said, as far as I can remember, this is the first time we’ve heard about the Fantastic Beasts tale being a three-parter since WB announced the news in that NYT article. So all of you who missed it the first time are excused.
People have good reason to get excited over Fantastic Beasts being more than one movie. It suggests that J.K. Rowling has a large (and dare I say “epic?”) story in mind for Newt Scamander, the character at the center of the tale. In the story, Newt’s suitcase, filled with all of his beasts, will be accidentally opened, leading several of the beasts to escape and create a mess in 1920s New York. Think of it like a Pokéball accidentally unleashing a Charizard into the wild.
From there we don’t know what will be happening, but we believe there will be some backlash from Muggles who detest the presence of Wizards in their city. My guess is that Muggle / Wizard relations will be a big part of the trilogy.
Presumably the first movie will be setting up a good amount of plot that can play out over the course of another two movies. It’ll be exciting to see it all come together! Especially if J.K. Rowling is writing the next two movies.
The Fantastic Beasts sequel and threequel may be released November 16, 2018 and November 20, 2020. WB planted flags on those two dates in October 2014 for “Untitled WB Event” movies. One can assume those “events” are Fantastic Beasts movies since the first Fantastic Beasts movie is hitting theaters on November 18, 2016.