J.K. Rowling Already Has All Five Fantastic Beasts Movies Mapped Out

If you’re a Harry Potter fan, you probably know that J.K. Rowling planned out all the major events of the seven books in the series before she even wrote one chapter of the first novel. We shouldn’t be surprised to find out, then, that she’s pulled the same trick on the spinoff movie series Fantastic Beasts, as Rowling has now revealed that she already has the next three films in the franchise “mapped out.”

Following Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, next month’s The Crimes of Grindelwald is set to be the second out of a five-movie storyline. Rowling says she may feel like changing certain details as the narrative develops, but the overall structure of the plot is fixed in place. She also teased that the backbone of the franchise is filling in backstories that didn’t fit into the Harry Potter books/films.

“As with the Harry Potter books, it is all mapped out. In fact, when we announced the five films, I talked about that. It’s always possible that some details will change along the way, but the arc of the story is there. It’s been an amazing opportunity to tell parts of the backstory that never made it into the original books. I’m thinking particularly of one character that I think fans will be surprised to meet in this movie.”

It’s not clear whether Rowling’s final remarks about a character that “fans will be surprised to meet” refer to Nagini, who’ll be portrayed as a human by Claudia Kim in the sequel, as this interview with EW was undertaken just prior to that being announced. If it’s not, then apparently there’s another figure from the Harry Potter mythos that’ll turn up unexpectedly in Crimes.

We also know that each of the Fantastic Beasts movies will move the action to a new city in a different part of the world. The first installment was set in New York, while the second will take the characters to Paris. Who knows where else in the Wizarding World, Newt and friends (and enemies) will visit next?

Be sure to catch Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald in cinemas from November 16th.