In an ideal world, Warner Bros. would have announced Fantastic Beasts as a five-film franchise because there was a plan in place, one that would have diligently mapped out Newt Scamander’s arc from beginning to end, necessitating over ten hours of cinema and close to a billion dollars in production costs to make it happen.
That clearly hasn’t been the case, with this week’s The Secrets of Dumbledore going out of its way to try and plug the many gaps that pockmarked The Crimes of Grindelwald, with a couple of retcons thrown in for good measure in an effort to try and right a ship that’s coming dangerously close to sinking.
Producer David Heyman admitted not too long ago that Fantastic Beasts 4 doesn’t have a script yet, and it sounds as though the pressure had been piled on The Secrets of Dumbledore to success. A new report from Variety digs deep into the scandal and controversy to have plagued the Wizarding World, and notes that there are no guarantees at this stage the series will conclude as intended.
“There’s speculation about whether or not Fantastic Beasts will complete its ambitions as a five-film franchise. At the moment, there’s no screenplay for a fourth installment, sources have confirmed. Executives at Warner Bros. are waiting to see how The Secrets of Dumbledore is received before giving films four and five the greenlight.”
The third chapter is already set for an underwhelming start at the box office, and while Warner Bros. are unlikely to end such a lucrative cash cow on an open-ended note, it can’t be ruled out that Fantastic Beasts 4 might end up drawing a line under the prequels a little earlier than expected.
