It might sound a little harsh, but is anyone particularly enthused about the prospect of Fantastic Beasts 3? Announcing that a fictional textbook J.K. Rowling had originally written to raise money for charity into five feature-length blockbusters right out of the gate always seemed like an ambitious if not downright risky strategy, and it wouldn’t be unfair to say that interest in the prequel series has dissipated significantly.
The Crimes of Grindelwald was the worst-performing entry in the Wizarding World from both a critical and commercial perspective, with longtime supporters of the saga up in arms about the final twist that repositions Ezra Miller’s Credence Barebone as Aurelius Dumbledore, secret sibling to both Albus and Aberforth. That’s without even mentioning the continued backlash that dogged Miller’s altercation with a fan, Johnny Depp’s firing as Grindelwald and most everything J.K. Rowling does these days, so director David Yates and his team really need to knock Fantastic Beasts 3 out of the park to get people back on side.
We’ve now heard from our sources – the same ones who told us Warner Bros. were actively inviting pitches for TV shows set in the Harry Potter universe long before it was confirmed – that the threequel is already poised to retcon its predecessor by revealing that Aurelius isn’t Dumbledore’s brother, but actually his nephew.
As per our information, it turns out that Aberforth had an affair with a woman who ended up having his child, with the infant then being scurried away and his true lineage hidden until it was relayed to him by Depp’s Grindelwald. There’s a hint of the Jack Nicholsons about the purported plot development, but Fantastic Beasts 3 as a whole is going to need a lot more than family drama and even more rug-pulling to convince audiences, and perhaps even Warner Bros., that there’s a vested desire to see the final two chapters in the franchise brought to life.
