Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them star Eddie Redmayne is uncertain about the franchise's future.
Redmayne recently spoke to IndieWire about Fantastic Beasts 4 in promotion of his upcoming film The Good Nurse. When asked if he had any information about the fourth installment in the Harry Potter spinoff series, the 40-year-old actor provided anxious fans with a response that doesn't exactly sound promising. "I don't," Redmayne answered. "It's more a question for J. K. Rowling and David Yates and Warners, but I don't know, I’m afraid. I can't add to that. I love playing Newt, he’s a sweet man."
Fantastic Beasts' Franchise Purgatory
Initially planned as a five-film series, Fantastic Beasts has yet to receive confirmation from Warner Bros. for its fourth film. As of April 2022, Warner Bros. claimed the studio was "waiting to see how The Secrets of Dumbledore was received before giving films four and five the greenlight." The 2022 film became the lowest-grossing film of the Wizarding World Franchise. Thus, the future of the Fantastic Beasts film series and who would return for a fourth film is surprisingly uncertain.
Released in 2016, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them stars Redmayne as a British magizoologist named Newt Scamander, whose textbooks Harry Potter would eventually study at Hogwarts several years later. In the film, Newt lands himself in hot water after accidentally switching briefcases with a Muggle named Jacob Kowalski, after a magical creature called a Niffler escapes. The case-carrying wizard must track down the missing magical creatures and also prove his innocence after the Director of Magical Security, Percival Graves, wrongfully accuses him of murder.
In addition to Redmayne, other cast members like Ezra Miller and Katherine Waterston returned to reprise their roles in the 2018 sequel The Crimes of Grindelwald. However, after the controversy surrounding Amber Heard's domestic violence allegations against Johnny Depp, the Pirates of the Caribbean star resigned from his role as Gellert Grindelwald from The Secrets of Dumbledore. The vacancy led the casting team to hire Hannibal actor Mads Mikkelsen to replace him. Of course, that wasn't even the first casting swap for the character, who was played by Colin Farrell in the first film.
Despite Depp's absence in the third Fantastic Beasts film, Mikkelsen is confident the actor will return in the future. "Obviously, well, now the course has changed—he won the suit, the court [case]—so let’s see if he comes back. He might," Mikkelsen hinted. Additionally, the actor says he wanted the chance to consult with Depp after unexpectedly replacing him in the role. "I would've loved to have talked to him about it if I had the chance, but I just don't know him in that sense," he said.
All three Fantastic Beasts films are available to stream on HBO Max.
Source: IndieWire via Screen Rant