Fantastic Beasts: 10 Potential Harry Potter Spinoffs We'd Rather See
Because sometimes JK Rowling can be her own worst enemy, and this is one of those times.
For a really long time, most people would have said that JK Rowling was one of the few super successful authors who consistently had her finger on the pulse of her fanbase. Then The Cursed Child happened. So sorry JK, but now you're on notice.
When the news of a new franchise revolving around Newt Scamander, a character we'd only fleetingly been introduced to through his seminal work Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, was announced, it was terribly exciting.
But I couldn't shake the niggling feeling that there were so many other HP stories I wanted told before this one. Then JK announced that, in true Douglas Adams fashion, the Newt Scamander film coming out next month is going to be the first in an increasingly inaccurately named trilogy (in this case, five films).
Now, I'm a big Star Wars fan, and I'm excited about their idea to release a series of standalone films that are only tangentially related to the main Star Wars story. It allows us to explore the expanded universe, but doesn't force casual audiences into a multi-film commitment to characters they don't even know.
That's what I would rather see with the Harry Potter world. It's such a rich universe that it seems a shame to devote so much time to just one character when there are so many other stories to tell.
With that in mind, here are just a few of the stories that should have been given the spin-off franchise treatment.
10. Neville Longbottom
I'm going into this entry knowing full well that I am very likely one of the few people who is particularly eager to see a Neville Longbottom spinoff film. But hear me out. Neville is the most noble, painfully awesome character in all of the wizarding world.
He has all of the hero's journey that Harry Potter experienced (arguably more so, because he didn't benefit from the same levels of fame and natural talent), but gets none of the credit. To be totally honest, Neville deserves his own standalone film. I always think of him as sort of the Rosencratz and Guildenstern of Harry Potter, and you know he had some crazy adventures after the Battle of Hogwarts, but before he settled down to become professor of Herbology.
That's what I want to see. Mid-20s Neville exploring the world and finding himself as he fights the forces of darkness. Is part of this out of a desire to see Matt Lewis reprise his role as Neville Longbottom? I can neither confirm nor deny that. But you can't argue that it wouldn't be a great story.