Fantastic Beasts 3: What Went Wrong?

Fantastic Beasts was originally envisioned as a trilogy, but was later expanded to a five-film franchise. However, with The Secrets of Dumbledore underperforming, the chances of all five films being made are looking increasingly slim.

According to Variety, execs at Warner Bros. were waiting to see how the movie was received before greenlighting the next instalments, and looking at its mixed reviews and disastrous box-office, it's hard to see the studio being eager to proceed.

It would also be quite easy to pull the plug here too, since work on the fourth movie hasn't even begun yet. That's according to producer David Heyman, who, in February, confirmed that they haven't started writing it.

Plus, director David Yates is currently prepping to shoot another movie later this summer, so clearly, Warner Bros. hasn't asked him to keep his schedule clear for Fantastic Beasts. That might just mean the studio is getting another director, sure, but it might also mean they're throwing in the towel.

All that said, nothing is official at this stage, and Warner Bros. might yet decide to give the franchise another shot. It could be months before we hear anything too, with the third film being officially greenlit a full year after The Crimes of Grindelwald's release. Theoretically then, we could be waiting until 2023 for an announcement.

So what if the series does continue? Well, for our money, it needs a top-to-bottom revamp. Get rid of Yates and bring in a visionary director to breathe new life into proceedings, like Alfonso Cuarón did with The Prisoner of Azkaban. Let Steve Kloves write the script from scratch, and relegate Rowling to a consultant. Phase out the Fantastic Beasts stuff, and focus solely on Dumbledore and Grindelwald. These are big, but necessary decisions - what Warner Bros. has been doing so far clearly hasn't worked, and it wouldn't make sense to continue like nothing is wrong.

Alternatively, just hit the emergency button and convince the Harry Potter gang to return for a Cursed Child adaptation. Either way, the wizarding world deserves more movies - just make them better than The Secrets of Dumbledore, please.