“Fantastic Beasts” director David Yates said this week that the Warner Bros. “Harry Potter” spinoff franchise is on an indefinite pause.
While a guest on the podcast “Inside Total Film,” Yates, who directed all three “Beasts” films as well as the final four films of the “Harry Potter” franchise, was asked about the status of the fourth film’s production. The franchise is expected to have five installments.
“It’s all just parked,” Yates said. “We made those three movies, we made that last one through the pandemic … we’re all so proud of that movie, and it went out into the world, we just needed to stop and pause and take it easy.”
Much like other longstanding franchises, such as “Mission: Impossible” and “Fast & Furious,” “Fantastic Beasts” has struggled to replicate its pre-pandemic box office success. The most recent film, “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore,” was released in April 2022 to the franchise’s lowest box-office opening — and went on to become the lowest grossing — of the three films. Since that disappointment, as well as controversy surrounding cast member Ezra Miller, who had a prominent role in the third film, rumors began to swirl that production of a fourth film may be hampered.
In November 2022, Variety reported that Warner Bros. had been in a wait-and-see mode before the release of “The Secrets of Dumbledore,” and that no script for a fourth or fifth film was in the works.
