This fall, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald will take audiences back to the Wizarding World, introduce us to a young Albus Dumbledore and, at long last, return us to Hogwarts. The sequel film will once again be directed by David Yates and scripted by Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling. After the credits roll on that film, we'll have a two-year wait until the next chapter in the Fantastic Beasts pentalogy hits theater screens. Ensuring that the third film arrives on time just like the Hogwarts Express, J.K. Rowling is already working on the screenplay. The author confirmed her current projects, including Fantastic Beasts 3, saying:
I've just finished the fourth Galbraith novel, Lethal White, and I'm now writing the screenplay for Fantastic Beasts 3. After that I'll be writing another book for children. I've been playing with the (non-Harry Potter/wizarding world) story for about six years, so it's about time I get it down on paper.
Proving her work ethic, immense talents and possible possession of a time turner, J.K. Rowling confirmed on her website that she has just finished a novel and is now working on the Fantastic Beasts 3 screenplay. We knew that Fantastic Beasts 3 was coming, but it is nice to know that the creator of this world is already hard at work crafting the third chapter in this series that is carving out its own identity in the Wizarding World, while also weaving in to the mythology established in the Harry Potter stories.
There is also something cool about J.K. Rowling writing all of the screenplays for the Fantastic Beasts series. The Harry Potter films were adapted from her novels, and the Fantastic Beasts movies are going off of her screenplays, ensuring a continuity of vision for the Wizarding World onscreen. Sure there have been different directors and liberties taken, as well as changes from the source material, but ultimately all of these films, a potential thirteen in total, are all derived from one woman's imagination.
This lets Potterheads know that this isn't someone else's take on J.K. Rowling's story, or something that may or may not adhere to her vision. It is hers through and through. We know that she is a larger plan in mind for the Fantastic Beasts series and considering that this film will involve Dumbledore and Grindelwald, there is no one else I would want telling the histories of these iconic characters.
What's also quite exciting is J.K Rowling's mention of another children's book that she's been playing with for six years. It would be foolish to think she could craft another children's book that would wind up having the same cultural resonance as Harry Potter. But before it was a worldwide phenomenon, multi-billion dollar movie franchise and theme park, Harry Potter was once just a children's book sitting on shelves at a book fair, so it is hard not to be intrigued by such a storyteller tackling something new.
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald apparates into theaters on November 16. Check out our release schedule for everything else hitting theaters this year and for all the latest on the Wizarding World onscreen, stay tuned to CinemaBlend.
