Fantastic Beasts 3 is taking its sweet time getting here. Following the every-two-years release pattern of the first two, the third installment of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter prequel series was originally due this November. However, Warner Bros. pushed it back until 2021 when the script went through some retooling last year. The film was supposed to start shooting this past week but obviously, that’s believed to have been cancelled given the coronavirus outbreak.
It was star Dan Fogler who revealed the intended production start date, and he’s now shared some more insider info on FB3 in an interview with Syfy Wire. Without going into spoilers, the actor – who plays Newt Scamander’s muggle pal Jacob Kowalski – teased that the third movie will lead towards a “massive war” in the Wizarding World and so will feature some “epic” battle sequences.
“I can say I read the script and the character development is really lovely and it’s very similar to the feel of the first movie, which I think is great. It’s leading toward this massive war with the backdrop of World War II, so you can just imagine epic battle scenes are coming.”
Fogler’s comments should be encouraging to fans of the franchise. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is infamously the least successful entry in the whole HP universe, falling short of previous box office earnings and garnering a very mixed reception. WB has previously promised that they would be correcting some of the mistakes of the second one in this new film, and it seems one way they’ve decided to do that is hark back to the lighter tone of … And Where to Find Them.
At the same time, it looks like the action content will be upped, which only makes sense considering where the sequel left off. Johnny Depp’s Gellert Grindelwald – who will be back next time – had amassed new followers, including Jacob’s girlfriend Queenie Goldstein and Credence Barebone AKA Aurelius Dumbledore, Albus’ hitherto-unknown brother. Speaking of whom, expect more of Jude Law’s Hogwarts professor and the school itself.
It’s likely that this delay will have some sort of impact on Fantastic Beasts 3‘s release, but hopefully it’ll still sneak into late 2021.
