Fans of the Fantastic Beasts film franchise haven’t exactly had it easy over the past several years. Things started out so positively with the release of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them in 2016, as people enjoyed the Harry Potter universe spinoff. There were plans for the film to be the first of five in a series that not only told the story of Newt Scamander, but also gave a ton of backstory to the characters of Grindelwald and Voldemort. Unfortunately, things took a turn after that. After two more divisive films, it appears the Fantastic Beasts series is done for good.
Neither Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald nor Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore could achieve the critical or commercial success of the first film in the series. While fans still held out hope that the series would find a way to continue at some point, star Eddie Redmayne has all-but shut the door on that scenario.
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Speaking to ComicBook about his new Peacock thriller series, Day of the Jackal, Redmayne said that we’ve likely seen the last of New Scamander on the big screen.
“I think they probably have [seen the last of Newt],” Redmayne told us. “That was a very frank answer, but yeah. And that’s as far as I know. I mean, you’d have to speak to the people at Warner Bros. and J.K Rowling, but as far as I know, that’s it. I think he may come back in a glimpse in the Universal world in Florida that they’re opening up, in which you may catch a glimpse of what he was up to in Paris.”
This shouldn’t come as too big of a surprise for fans of the Harry Potter franchise, considering the dwindling returns and interest in the last couple of Fantastic Beasts movies. The Secrets of Dumbledore made less than half of the total box office of the original Fantastic Beasts movie six years prior, though it did get substantially better reviews from critics and fans than The Crimes of Grindelwald.
For a time, it seemed like the Fantastic Beasts saga might be the on-screen future for the Harry Potter franchise, at least in the short term. As that has fizzled, however, Warner Bros. has made the head-scratching decision to completely reboot Harry Potter as a television series, recasting all of the roles from the films and essentially retelling the same story we’ve already seen and read.
While he won’t be returning to the world of Harry Potter as Newt Scamander, Eddie Redmayne can be seen starring in Day of the Jackal, which premieres on Peacock November 14th.