Eddie Redmayne's Reaction to Fantastic Beasts 4 Suggests Franchise Has No Future
Although the Fantastic Beasts franchise was previously declared to be a five-film series, all the drama surrounding it may cause the franchise to shut down after the third movie, Eddie Redmayne's words prove.
Eddie Redmayne playing a fan-favorite beast enthusiast Newt Scamander in Fantastic Beasts has spoken to IndieWire about the future of the franchise. The actor admitted that he had no new information about Fantastic Beasts 4 though he wouldn't mind returning to the role of Newt Scamander. His words made it clear that the creators of the franchise haven't yet contacted the actor about his participation in future installments, and, considering that Fantastic Beasts has Eddie's face plastered all over it, isn't that a troubling detail?
Redmayne's statement and the fact that Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, which hit big screens in April this year, has become the most poorly-performing part of the franchise at the box office calls into question the possibility the series could be canceled alltogether.
Though no official statements have been made by either J.K. Rowling or David Yates about the future of Fantastic Beasts, fans report that WizardingWorld.com asked its premium members to complete a survey prepared by Warner Bros.
The survey contains three questions about Fantastic Beasts, but one is particularly strong in suggesting that the franchise might have problems. Warner Bros. asked fans for their opinion on whether the Wizarding World series is getting better, stays in place, or has deteriorated. Could such a questionnaire be an attempt to gather the fans' feedback before making a final decision about the future of the Fantastic Beasts franchise?
While this is definitely a possibility, the majority of Fantastic Beasts fans seem to be hopeful about the continuation of the franchise one way or another, despite Redmayne's words and the controversies surrounding the franchise. With the Fantastic Beasts theme park being built, active social media accounts, and the fact that The Secrets of Dumbledore didn't get an official green light until a year after The Crimes of Grindelwald had been released, fans feel that it is not yet time to worry.
Plus, after the meeting between Warner Bros' new CEO David Zaslav and J.K. Rowling the rumors of the HBO Max Wizarding World series connected to Fantastic Beasts surfaced. Creating an HBO Max series instead of movies 4 and 5 would actually make sense, considering the fact that The Secrets of Dumbledore performed much better on HBO Max than at the box office.
Only time will tell whether fans' hopes about the future of the Fantastic Beast franchise will come true. Only one thing is for sure: we are to see more of Wizarding World on big and small screens, whether it is the continuation of Fantastic Beasts or other Harry Potter spin-offs.