The Harry Potter franchise is in rough shape. The original series of eight movies, which followed Harry’s story to its conclusion, were a wild success, and also happened to feature many of the most prominent British actors alive at the time. In modern Hollywood, though, no franchise is truly dead, which is why we got the Fantastic Beasts franchise in 2016.
Helmed by David Yates, who directed the final four Harry Potter movies, and written by Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, the Fantastic Beasts franchise seemed set up for success. A prequel series to the original films, they follow Newt Scamander, an offbeat British wizard, as he faces the rise of Grindelwald, the greatest dark wizard to ever live before Voldemort took that title.
Although the franchise may have seemed intriguing to Potter die-hards, after three installments, the movies have not seen the same tremendous successes as their predecessors. Now, many are wondering whether we’ll be getting a fourth Fantastic Beasts movie or not.
When would a Fantastic Beasts 4 release date be?
The third installment in the franchise, The Secrets of Dumbledore, follows Dumbledore as he attempts to stop Grindelwald from taking over the wizarding world. The franchise was initially supposed to span five films, and The Secrets of Dumbledore certainly leaves room for another installment if there was interest in making one.
That movie was released in 2022, though, and it seems like development on a subsequent installment won’t be moving forward at Warner Bros., at least for the time being. In an interview with Deadline from October 2023, Yates confirmed as much.
“With Beasts, it’s all just parked. We made those three movies, the last one through a pandemic, and it was enormous fun, but it was tough,” he explained while promoting the Netflix original movie Pain Hustlers. “We’re all so proud of [Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore]. When it went out into the world, we just needed to sort of stop and pause, and take it easy.”
Who would be in the cast of Fantastic Beasts 4?
While it seems at this point that a fourth movie in the franchise is unlikely, the cast for the movie would likely have included many of the people who were part of the previous three installments.
That includes Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander, Jude Law as Albus Dumbledore, Mads Mikkelsen as Gellert Grindelwald (he took over the role from Johnny Depp), Dan Fogler as Jacob Kowalski, and Ezra Miller (The Flash) as Credence. The futures of Queenie and Tina, who did not appear in The Secrets of Dumbledore, would be less certain in a potential fourth installment.
What would the plot of Fantastic Beasts 4 be?
The plot of the fourth installment was set up by the end of The Secrets of Dumbledore. Grindelwald loses the International Council of Wizards election, and he and Dumbledore are now free to duel in a way they hadn’t been able to before.
Grindelwald’s true intentions were also revealed, and the speculation suggests that he might have spent much of the fourth movie in hiding before returning to the public eye for the fifth installment. The duel between Dumbledore and Grindelwald was legendary even in Harry’s day, so it seems like that would serve as the climax for this series.
Harry Potter is now headed to television
While things seem to be over for Fantastic Beasts, Warner Bros. has not given up on some of its most famous intellectual property. Instead, the franchise is moving over to television, where HBO is reportedly working on an adaptation of the original books.
Given how recently the film franchise ended (Daniel Radcliffe is still thriving), it’s unclear how successful that series will be. What’s definitely true, though, is that it will be very familiar to audiences, and that may come with a built-in audience.
