It is looking like the “Fantastic Beasts” movies are putting Warner Bros. in a difficult position. Creator J.K. Rowling‘s Twitter comments targeting the trans community, and the removal/recasting of Johnny Depp as the villain of the “Harry Potter” spinoffs/prequels after losing a lawsuit against the British press referring to him as a “wife-beater,” have embarrassed the studio. The latest hiccup saw co-star Ezra Miller arrested in Hawaii for “disorderly conduct and harassment,” the actor’s second altercation connected to drinking at a bar.
Variety reports that Warners isn’t exactly keen on spending more time and money, with each pic costing $200 million to make before marketing, looking at diminishing returns and embarrassing media coverage. Also plaguing the franchise is the lack of interest/critical response between installments, and this led to “Harry Potter” franchise screenwriter Steve Kloves being brought in to co-write the latest film after Rowling handled the last two scripts solo.
All this despite having two more movies supposedly in development stages as five movies were originally announced even before the studio got feedback on the first installment. The first movie earned an impressive global cume of $800 million while the sequel featuring Depp had a steep decline of $650 million, and the third film is expected to have an uphill battle to make a solid amount of money during the pandemic.
There are now questions about whether the studio will be able to complete their promises as “Fantastic Beasts 4” doesn’t have a script and Warners is reportedly waiting to see how “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” does at the box office before greenlighting the next two pics.
Even as the Miller situation begins to settle down after reports the studio is “hitting pause” on their working relationship, another controversy has arisen with dialogue referencing a former romantic relationship between two male main characters, Dumbledore and Grindelwald. The dialogue is being removed in China (and potentially by other anti-gay governments too).
Will the studio spend another $400 million-plus shooting two more movies in a franchise that people are getting tired of or do they focus on other things? We’ll just have to wait and see.