With the 7 Harry Potter books being dragged out into 8 films and in turn making a monumental amount of money the studio has understandable turned to author J K Rowling’s Harry Potter spin-off Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them which yesterday was announced to run for at least five episodes.
“I think, when you realise what story we’re really telling, you’ll understand that it can’t possibly fit in one movie!” Rowling said in a tweet following a simultaneous fan event in London and the US. The story revolves around the character of Newt Scamander played by Eddie Redmayne and in the first film takes place in New York City 70 years before Harry Potter reads Scamander’s book in sorcery school. Originally the author had intended only three episodes for the Potter prequels but now the second instalment is pencilled in for November 16, 2018 and thereon looks like we’ll have a film very 2 years or so. Warner Bros have had a bit of a rough time last year with the failure of Jupiter Ascending ( or ‘Uranus Descending’ as it should have been called) of late though the success of Suicide Squad has been made amends and their DC universe films look promising.
JK Rowling is currently finishing the second screenplay and David Yates, who directs the first film will also be directing the second which is believed to take place in another major global city. If Yates signs on to all five Beasts films, it will take his tally of Rowling collaborations to nine having directed four of the films in the Harry Potter franchise
