Fantastic Beasts 3 will happen, but fans of the Wizarding World will have to wait longer than expected to reunite with Newt Scamander and company – and it’s all for the best. The Wizarding World that fans came to know thanks to Harry Potter continues to expand with the Fantastic Beasts series, which is set decades before the events in Harry Potter and provides some backstory on characters like Albus Dumbledore, Gellert Grindelwald, and the magizoologist Newt Scamander.
The first film of this series, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, was released in 2016. Directed by David Yates and written by J.K Rowling herself, the film introduced viewers to Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) and some magical creatures that were ready to create chaos among muggles. The sequel, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, was released in 2018 and followed Newt and Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) as they did their best to take down Gellert Grindelwald (Johnny Depp). The film was heavily criticized, and this could have impacted the status of Fantastic Beasts 3.
Fantastic Beasts 3 has been delayed from its original November 2020 release to November 2021. The plan for the series is for it to be composed of five films, so a third Fantastic Beasts film will happen, eventually. The delay has been attributed to the production team needing more time to prepare, which is understandable given the amount of visual effects, characters, and creatures each film has, and this also gives them time to look back and learn from their mistakes. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald was criticized for its excessive plotting and lack of sense of adventure compared to the first film. Johnny Depp’s casting has also been quite controversial, and while it seems unlikely that he will be recast, the Fantastic Beasts 3 delay should be used to find ways to solve this issue – if they are willing to learn from their mistakes, that is.
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald was a step back from what the first film was building, and showed that Rowling and company don’t have a clear idea of where the series is going. More time to prepare the third film also means more time to figure out what they want to achieve with the series, and Fantastic Beasts 3 is their big chance to make things right if they don’t want viewers to lose interest on the following films. While visual effects in the Wizarding World series are key – and are the first thing most people think about when they learn the crew needs “more time to prep” – they are nothing if there’s not a good story to support them. The production team has plenty of time to work on the story and prepare the visual side of it – there’s really no rush now that they have been granted one more year of pre-production.
Whether Fantastic Beasts 3 is aiming to be bigger than the previous films or not, the delay is definitely for the best. There have been too many examples of films that went through rushed production processes and the final results were far from ideal, and with a series that is already hurt by its latest installment, pushing back the release and production start is the best decision.
