Warner Bros. has greenlit Fantastic Beasts 3 according to Deadline and is eyeing spring of 2020 to begin filming on the third movie in the series. The film had already been delayed two times from its original start date of July 2019.
The Harry Potter franchise is still a massive moneymaker for WB, but the reviews and domestic returns on the second film in the series, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, gave the studio pause as they developed the third movie. Originally, the movies were set to turn around rapidly, but that clearly affected the quality of the second movie and WB decided it “didn’t want to rush anything” since the third movie is bigger and more prep time is required for it. There are also two more films after this one planned that WB wants to set up for success. To that end, the studio has brought in Steve Kloves, a producer on the franchise, to co-write the screenplay with J.K. Rowling. She previously had solo credit on the films, with the first movie being the first screenplay she’d ever written.
The movie will reportedly continue the world-hopping nature of the series by this time taking place in Brazil, specifically Rio de Janeiro. Previous films unpacked the wizarding world outside of Hogwarts with films set in New York and Paris. Fantastic Beasts 3 will also reportedly feature a larger role for Jessica Williams, who played Professor Eulalie “Lally” Hicks, a teacher at Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in The Crimes of Grindelwald. The rest of the main cast is also set to return, including Eddie Redmayne, Jude Law, Johnny Depp, Ezra Miller, Alison Sudol, Dan Fogler, and Katherine Waterston. David Yates is locked in to direct as he has the past two films.
Despite the delays, Fantastic Beasts 3 is still scheduled to release on Nov. 12, 2021.
