Warner Bros. pushes production on Fantastic Beasts 3 back to late fall

Before the release of FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM, series creator J.K. Rowling announced that the prequel franchise would consist of five films, but that's by no means a guarantee, especially as the last film was released to mixed reviews and currently stands as the lowest grossing film of the entire HARRY POTTER franchise. The third film in the franchise is still a go, but Deadline has reported that production on the film will be pushed back.

According to the outlet, principal photography on FANTASTIC BEASTS 3 was set to begin this July, but Warner Bros. have now pushed that date back to late fall. The reason for this delay reportedly comes down to the team needing more prep time in order to properly deliver the sequel, which would need to be in soft-prep right now if they still wanted to start by July. Instead of rushing into production as they have in the past, Deadline notes that Warner Bros. executives are now moving to give big productions enough time to properly develop. What an outrageous idea. The FANTASTIC BEASTS cast have been told of the delay in order to make changes to their own schedules, which may have Ezra Miller shaking his head as Warner Bros. had previously pushed production on THE FLASH film back in order to make room for FANTASTIC BEASTS 3. No word on whether this production delay will also force the studio to rethink the sequel's rumoured November 2020 release date.

We still don't know all that much about FANTASTIC BEASTS 3, but J.K. Rowling already has everything mapped out. "It’s always possible that some details will change along the way, but the arc of the story is there," Rowling said. "It’s been an amazing opportunity to tell parts of the backstory that never made it into the original books. I’m thinking particularly of one character that I think fans will be surprised to meet in this movie." It's previously been said that each FANTASTIC BEASTS sequel will be set in a different city, and while Rowling hasn't revealed anything, she has teased that we'll go to at least one, possibly two, new cities in the next film. Rowling also said that she's "keen to move outside Europe and North America" as well.