It’s been years since the last Harry Potter film was released in theaters (and even longer since the final installment of the book series came out), and Potterheads have been desperately searching for a way to fill the void—until it was announced that J.K. Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them would be given the Hollywood treatment. Although we’ve still got a few more months to go until Fantastic Beasts hits the big screen (November 18, to be precise), fans can take pleasure in the news that there will be sequels to follow! *cue the screams*
While chatting with GS News, David Yates, the director of Fantastic Beasts, shared some juicy deets in regards to the highly-anticipated film. David, who has directed several Harry Potter movies, will be assisted by J.K. Rowling in the project. That’s right, everyone’s favorite storyteller has written the screenplay for the movie—as well as its sequel! “We’ve done the first one,” David said during the interview. “She’s written the second one, and she’s got ideas for the third.” So basically, fans have hope for THREE installments of Fantastic Beasts.
Considering that the adventures of Newt Scamander are new to fans, David also pointed out the creative liberty that he and J.K. have. “No one quite has ownership of them yet in terms of having a relationship with the material, other than the relationship they’ll have with the movie when it comes out,” he explained. “So, it’s sort of lovely in a way.”
Because J.K. Rowling developed the screenplay, David is confident that the movie will remain quite true to the 2001 book. “When we adapted the [Harry Potter] books, you would have to leave things out that you hated leaving out because they didn’t quite work within the structure of the storytelling of the movie or the movie would just be far too long. With this, it’s just pure Jo from the first page to the last page.” We can’t wait to see how this new series turns out!