While he was doing the rounds promoting Paddington 2 [read our review here], super-producer David Heyman (Gravity, I Am Legend) spoke to Digital Spy about the mission statement for the next Fantastic Beasts film and its subsequent sequels.
Heyman stated “I think the pleasure of these Fantastic Beasts films is that they’ll work on their own terms. You don’t need to know Harry Potter to enjoy them, but if you do, you have another layer, another level to enjoy. I’m very excited as more nuggets drop and audiences respond. Fans will be incredibly excited. This next film is different to the first, but each film will march to its own beat and have its own tone. I don’t yet know if the series will get darker, although all of them will be fun and entertaining.”
Does the formula need to change that much from the $800m grossing original, or are you happy that each instalment will take a different approach? What we know about the second film can be found below…
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Eddie Redmayne will return as wizarding world magizoologist Newt Scamander, alongside Katherine Waterston as Auror Tina Goldstein, Alison Sudol as her sister Queenie Goldstein, and Dan Fogler as Jacob Kowalski. Johnny Depp stars as the powerful Dark Wizard Gellert Grindelwald, with Jude Law as Albus Dumbledore, Ezra Miller as Credence Barebone, Zoe Kravitz as Leta Lestrange, Callum Turner as Theseus Scamander, Claudia Kim as a young woman we first meet as a featured attraction at a wizarding circus, William Nadylam as a wizard named Yusuf Kama; Ingvar Sigurdsson as a bounty hunter named Grimmson; Ólafur Darri Ólafsson as Skender, who runs the wizarding circus; and Kevin Guthrie as Abernathy, whom we met as Tina and Queenie’s boss at MACUSA (Magical Congress of the USA).
J.K. Rowling wrote the screenplay for the film, which opens in 1927, a few months after Newt helped to unveil and capture the infamous Dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald. However, as he promised he would, Grindelwald has made a dramatic escape and has been gathering more followers to his cause—elevating wizards above all non-magical beings. The only one who might be able to stop him is the wizard he once called his dearest friend, Albus Dumbledore. But Dumbledore will need help from the wizard who had thwarted Grindelwald once before, his former student Newt Scamander. The adventure reunites Newt with Tina, Queenie and Jacob, but his mission will also test their loyalties as they face new perils in an increasingly dangerous and divided wizarding world. The film expands the wizarding world, moving from New York to London and on to Paris.
Fantastic Beasts 2will once again be directed by David Yates, from a screenplay by J.K. Rowling. It is set for release on November 18th 2018.
Originally published November 7, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
