The ‘Harry Potter’ film franchise is one of the most popular of all time. However, that popularity seemingly didn’t help the “Fantastic Beasts” franchise, as the spinoff films earned far less than the ‘HP’ films. And so much money was lost, it appears the franchise won’t get to finish its story, according to a couple of ‘Fantastic Beasts’ stars.
Speaking to Variety, while promoting his upcoming film “The Order,” Jude Law was asked about the status of the ‘Fantastic Beasts’ films. As mentioned above, the spinoff films were released well after the original ‘Harry Potter’ films finished. They told a Wizarding World story that took place well before the original films. However, the box office performance and critical reviews were poor and the series seems to have been quietly canceled after the third of five films. At least, that’s what it sounds like happened.
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“I know it’s certainly on hold,” said Law about the ‘Fantastic Beasts’ films. “My guess would be that, now that they’re 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.”
The TV show that Law is referencing is the new series from Warner Bros. and HBO that will reboot the ‘Harry Potter’ franchise as a TV series that uses one book per season. The series is apparently in the middle of casting now and will be coming to fans in the future.
A more blunt response to this question of whether or not fans have seen the last of ‘Fantastic Beasts’ comes from the other star of the films, Eddie Redmayne. Speaking recently to Comicbook.com, he was asked if people would see his character, Newt Scamander, again.
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“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.”
Again, it’s not a huge surprise the ‘Fantastic Beasts’ films aren’t continuing. People just didn’t like them. It’s just a shame, for fans at least, that the story won’t be told in its entirety. Instead, it’s going to end around the halfway point.
Regardless, much like Law said, all eyes are going to be on the ‘Harry Potter’ TV series to see if that can spark more interest in the Wizarding World.