When FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM arrives, it will merely be the first of a new five-film saga which will (hopefully) keep J.K. Rowling's Wizarding World alive and well for years to come. While still hopefully retaining that very special magic found in each of the HARRY POTTER films, FANTASTIC BEASTS will bring a lot of differences with it as well, including spanning a much greater amount of time than the HARRY POTTER movies did. While attending the premiere of FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM, J.K. Rowling explained to Variety why she found it necessary to expand the new franchise to from a trilogy to five films.
If you're not up to listening to Rowling speak for thirty seconds, here's what she said: "Originally, to tell you the truth, we said a trilogy as a placeholder. We wanted to be honest with people that it was going to be more than one movie, but we were feeling our way, and then there came a point in the drafting of the story where I said to David (Yates) that "this feels like five movies." I think I'm pretty certain about that, it's ambitious to tell it in five to be honest, because we're spanning nineteen years, but I can see an arc to five, so that's how it happened, it came out of the material." As FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM begins in 1926, nineteen years would take us to (counts on fingers) 1945, the end of the second World War and, perhaps more importantly in the world of HARRY POTTER, the year of Gellert Grindelwald and Albus Dumbledore's legendary Wizard duel. Johnny Depp is already signed on to play Grindelwald and a search is currently underway to find an actor to fill the shoes of a younger Dumbledore.
FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM hits theaters this Friday.