Five years after the main Harry Potter film series concluded with The Deathly Hallows – Part 2, Warner Bros. Pictures wound the Wizarding World clock back decades to follow along with Eddie Redmayne’s Newt Scamander in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Two sequels followed, both of which starred Jude Law as a younger Albus Dumbledore, and the original plan had been for the Fantastic Beasts film series to stretch across five movies. However, while recalling his experience playing the character who was previously brought to life by Richard Harris and Michael Gambon, Law got real about the franchise’s future, and it doesn’t sound good.
The actor briefly discussed his time in the Wizarding World during an extensive interview with Variety tied to the forthcoming release of The Order, his movie that opens with limited theatrical screenings this December on the 2024 release schedule. Although Law would welcome another opportunity to play Dumbledore, here’s what he had to say about the chances of the Fantastic Beasts saga continuing:
I know it’s certainly on hold. My guess would be that, now that they’re doing ‘Harry Potter’ as a TV show, they’ll probably put their energy into that. I certainly haven’t heard that there’s anything on the horizon.
Had things gone according to plan, the fifth Fantastic Beasts movie would have been set in 1945 and shown the climactic duel between Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald, which ended with the former defeating the latter, and in the process obtaining the Elder Wand. However, following Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore commercially underperforming and earning mixed reviews, it was reported that Warner Bros. Discovery had no plans to continue the film series. Instead, like Jude Law pointed out, the company is now going all in on HBO’s Harry Potter TV series, which will re-adapt the original books written by J.K. Rowling.
Despite the final two Fantastic Beasts movies being indefinitely set aside, if not outright shelved, Jude Law mentioned during the interview that Rowling had told him about the full arc she planned with Dumbledore. This included the character seeing himself as “a monster” and his ill-rated romance with Grindelwald. As Law explained:
I had a pretty clear sense of where it was going to go. … Because of Dumbledore’s past, I think he always felt guilty that he had been misled because he was in love. It followed him. He found himself to be unlovable because he trusted his heart. To play him and to really feel a sense of his extraordinary powers, I found a nice place in myself. I liked his heart, and I liked playing him because of that. I always enjoyed stepping in his shoes.
Maybe the stories from the final two Fantastic Beasts movies could still see the light of day in written form, and then the public can learn the full scope of what J.K. Rowling told Jude Law. For now, Fantastic Beasts will remain a film trilogy, with all three installments being available to stream with a Max subscription. And if, on the off chance, Warner Bros. decides to move forward with Fantastic Beasts 4 after all, we’ll let you know.
As for the Harry Potter TV series, Francesca Gardiner is serving as showrunner, Mark Mylod is an executive producer and will direct multiple episodes, and David Heyman is also executive producing. There’s no word yet on when filming will begin, nor any kind of information on a release window.