The third movie in the Fantastic Beasts series is almost here. And if you’re a fan of the Wizarding World who has been waiting a long time Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore movie to be released, there is perhaps some really good news for you, which might not be the best news for anybody else. We’re getting a lot of movie with the new Fantastic Beasts, as the film is nearly two and a half hours long.
The British Board of Film Classification, the MPAA of Great Britain, lists the runtime for Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore at two hours and 22 minutes. While that’s only slightly longer than the first two Fantastic Beasts films, the first two were 12 and 14 minutes past two hours respectively, these movies are only getting longer. And considering that, as far as we know, there are still two more Fantastic Beasts movies planned, it should be interesting to see if this trend continues.
It’s becoming more and more common for these blockbuster tentpole movies to get quite long. It’s essentially expected for movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to exceed two hours and we’ve seen Avengers: Endgame and The Batman both exceed three hours. The way these movies are seeing runtimes increase it would not be shocking to see the fifth Fantastic Beasts movie exceed three hours.
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore is a movie with a lot riding on this significant runtime. The third film’s release was initially delayed after the second movie, The Crimes of Grindelwald, underperformed with fans and at the box office. But then, due to the global pandemic, things were delayed even further. This means that it’s been quite a while since audiences have seen a Fantastic Beasts movie, while some are certainly going to be anticipating it that much more, others may have given up on the franchise.
At the same time, those that see The Secrets of Dumbledore will be seeing a somewhat different movie. One of the major roles, that of villain Grindelwald, is now being played by Mads Mikkelsen, after Warner Bros. and previous star Johnny Depp agreed to part company due to Depp’s ongoing legal issues.
The change in casting could be a boon to the new film. If audiences decide they like Mads Mikkelsen in the role then Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore could put the new movie back on track. The film is already going to have the deck stacked against it as the global box office still isn’t entirely back to normal. The question is not only do people want to see another Fantastic Beasts movie, but do they want to see so much that they will visit a theater in order to do so.
