The Harry Potter movies once served as Warner Bros.' most successful franchise, with many blaming its success on the DCU not being a priority for the studios at the time!
Still, it's been quite some time since the final movie was released back in 2011, and since then, we've seen the studio launch a prequel/spin-off series in the Fantastic Beasts franchise. Unfortunately, that's proven to be something of a let-down.
While Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was undeniably fun, the sequels were a major decline in quality, with not even the level of damage control in the latest instalment doing much to put the troubled series back on the right track. We're supposed to be getting at least two more movies to conclude this story, but those appear no closer to happening.
During a recent interview with NME, lead star Eddie Redmayne (who plays Newt Scamander) was asked if Fantastic Beasts 4 will eventually happen.
"I mean, at the moment, there’s nothing that I’m aware of," the British actor confirmed. "So, as I’m aware, it’s not something that’s on the cards." These comments follow a report from last November in which it was said the franchise has been axed.
That's disappointing for Harry Potter fans, but both The Crimes of Grindelwald and The Secrets of Dumbledore were box office disappointments, and the new regime at Warner Bros. Discovery forging ahead with those sequels...well, it wouldn't be the smartest of business decisions for the frugal CEO David Zaslav.
It's a shame this story won't receive a proper conclusion, though the decision to pivot from Newt to Dumbledore's rivalry with Gellert Grindelwald was always a strange one. Both Redmayne's character and those Fantastic Beasts were sidelined in their own franchise, possibly explaining why so many people lost interest in this series along the way.
We're sure the Harry Potter franchise is a well Warner Bros. will return to sooner rather than later, though what form that will take is impossible to say. There continue to be rumblings about a big screen adaptation of The Cursed Child, though the original cast doesn't appear to be in any rush to reprise their iconic roles.
Stay tuned to SFFGazette.com for further updates.