Academy Award winner Eddie Redmayne
has offered a disappointing (or satisfying, depending on how you feel about the franchise) update on the future of the Fantastic Beasts saga. Speaking with Comicbook.com about his upcoming thriller series The Day of the Jackal, Redmayne revealed that, in his opinion, we will not see his quirky Magizoologist Newt Scamander on the big screen again.
“I think they probably have [seen the last of Newt]. That was a very frank answer, but yeah. And that’s as far as I know. I mean, you’d have to speak to the people at Warner Bros. and J.K Rowling, but as far as I know, that’s it. I think he may come back in a glimpse in the Universal world in Florida that they’re opening up, in which you may catch a glimpse of what he was up to in Paris.”
Beginning with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them back in 2016, the franchise explores an unseen era of the Wizarding World, taking audiences back in time to the younger days of Dumbledore and the First Wizarding War, which runs parallel with World War II. The last audiences saw of the prequel series was in 2022’s Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, which sees Albus Dumbledore tasking Newt Scamander and his allies with a mission that will bring an end to the nefarious schemes of dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald’s army, played by Mads Mikkelsen who took over from Johnny Depp.
What Went Wrong With the Fantastic Beasts Franchise?
Unfortunately, rather than continue the success of the Harry Potter movie saga, Fantastic Beasts was considered by, well, pretty much everyone to be a disappointing return to the Wizarding World. The initial plan was reportedly to make a five-film series but, according to Eddie Redmayne, the tale of Newt Scamander will end with just three.
While Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore was considered an improvement on its predecessor (as per Rotten Tomatoes, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them has 74%, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald plummets with 36%, and Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore stands at 46%), the movie still received largely mixed reviews as well as bombing at the box office and becoming the lowest-grossing movie ever in the beloved franchise.
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Though Redmayne sounds pretty sure that we have seen the last of Newt Scamander, director David Yates, who helmed all three Fantastic Beasts movies, said a year ago that, at some point, the series would be back for a fourth outing.
“I’m sure at some point, we’ll be back. But yeah, I haven’t spoken to Jo, I haven’t spoken to [producer] David Heyman, I haven’t spoken to Warner Bros; we’re just taking a pause. It’s quite nice.”
Eddie Redmayne will play a very different character to the awkward Newt in The Day of the Jackal, starring as an elusive assassin who meets his match in a tenacious British intelligence officer who tracks him down in a thrilling cat-and-mouse chase across Europe. The series is all set to land on Peacock on 7 November 2024.
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore
- Release Date
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April 15, 2022
- Runtime
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142 minutes
- Franchise
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Harry Potter
- Characters By
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J.K. Rowling
- Sequel
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Fantastic Beasts 4, Fantastic Beasts 5
- Prequel
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Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
- Cinematographer
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George Richmond
- Producer
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David Heyman, J.K. Rowling, Tim Lewis, Steve Kloves, Lionel Wigram
- Production Company
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Heyday Films
- Sfx Supervisor
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Alistair Williams