Like most people, actress Katherine Waterston is assuming that the Fantastic Beasts series is over for good, but she is technically still under contract. In a new interview with NME, Waterston shared her thoughts on the series abrupt ending and her time as the witch Tina Goldstein. Summing it all up, she said: “I think that ship has sailed.”
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Warner Bros. announced a plan for five Fantastic Beasts movie at one point, but since the lackluster debut of The Secrets of Dumbledore in 2022, there have been many rumors that the series is over for good. One of the strongest hints came from star Eddie Redmayne, who told ComicBook.com: “As far as I know, that’s it.” So far, Waterston hasn’t talked about it as much, but she didn’t hold back in her new interview on Tuesday.
“The last two films probably won’t get made, but that’s only based on a gut feeling,” she said. “I know nothing and I’d probably be one of the last to know if something was happening because with films of that size, people aren’t calling up the performers to keep them updated.”
Waterston went on to wonder: “Do contracts expire? I’ve never thought about that before, but they probably do at some point, right? At the moment we are bound to them but I think that ship has sailed.”
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a prequel to the Harry Potter series, set in the 1920s at a time when the dark wizard Grindelwald was rising to power. Waterston played an American witch working as an Auror, but struggling for recognition. She was the main love interest of Newt Scamander (Redmayne). movies were written by Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling in her screenwriting debut.
What We Know About Fantastic Beasts’ Future
While Rowling announced her plan for five movies back in 2016, Warner Bros. never officially greenlit any future movies. Each one was ordered based on the success of the previous one, and Secrets of Dumbledore was the worst-performing movie in the Wizarding World franchise to date. In 2022, Variety reported that Warner Bros. had no Wizarding World movies in development.
The rest of the hints come from the cast and crew themselves. In October of 2023, director David Yates told the Inside Total Film podcast that the series was “parked,” and that Rowling had not consulted with him or many others about the five film announcement. There was also the commentary from Redmayne mentioned above, although that same month Jude Law told GQ that “there’s more [story] to tell.”
For now, fans of the Wizarding World can only look forward to HBO’s new TV adaptation of the Harry Potter series. In the meantime, the previous movies in the franchise are available to stream on Max.