Is The Fantastic Beasts Franchise Dead? Eddie Redmayne: ‘There Are Currently No Plans’
Redmayne had already spoken in recent months of the possibility of a fourth Fantastic Beasts film
After an all in all encouraging start, the Fantastic Beasts franchise seems to have stalled: first The Crimes of Grindelwald and then The Secrets of Dumbledore have completely sunk the fans’ interest in films set in the Harry Potter universe, and according to Eddie Redmayne Warner itself seems to be aware of this. Redmayne had already spoken in recent months of the possibility of a fourth Fantastic Beasts film, admitting that he was not aware of the production plans in this regard: the Oscar-winning actor has returned in these hours to address the subject, reiterating that he does not have yet to receive news about it.
Is The Fantastic Beasts Franchise Dead?
“I mean, at the moment there is nothing that I know about. So, as far as I know, right now there are no plans” were the words of the star of The Danish Girl and The Theory of Everything. Nothing prevents Warner Bros. Discovery from retracing its steps in the future, of course: the upheavals within the company and the conspicuous drop in interest in the saga on the occasion of the release of its third chapter, however, do not bode well.
With just $401 million in worldwide grossing, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore ended its box office run with the worst result of JK Rowling’s Wizarding World, including Harry Potter (don’t miss the Fantastic Beasts review Dumbledore’s Secrets). The top 3 of the lowest-grossing franchises are made up of the latest arrival in the first place, followed by Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (654 million) and Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban (797 million). In a saga of 8 films, only one did not exceed 800 million dollars, while in a project in five chapters of which three assets, already two have not succeeded, even gone worse than the studio’s already merciless expectations. Something has gone wrong.
Could it be entirely attributable to the Johnny Depp case? Or the sexist controversies related to Rowling? Could it instead derive in some way from the internal crisis at Warner Bros. and the merger with Discovery? And if the problem was elsewhere, within the very concept of the franchise, without too many excuses? By examining the saga and its indisputable criticisms, let’s try to understand what the future of the Wizarding World will be at the cinema now.
