Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which was originally conceived as the first in a trilogy spin-off of the Harry Potter series, will in fact be the first of five movies. Author-screenwriter J.K. Rowling revealed the news at a special global fan event Thursday at the Empire Theatre in London.
“I’m pretty sure that there are going to be five movies, now that I’ve been able to properly plot them out,” she said at the panel, which included director David Yates, producer David Heyman and stars Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Alison Sudol and Dan Fogler (Jon Voight and Colin Farrell attended in Hollywood). “We always knew that there would be more than one.” The event was streamed to fan audiences in New York, London, Mexico City, Sao Paulo and Rome.
Also teased was the location for the second movie, which will not be set in New York like the first but some other capital city around the world. Yates told the audience that they can expect a cameo by characters from the Harry Potter movies — a young Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald. Following the announcements fans were shown the opening 10 minutes of Fantastic Beasts, which opens with the 1926 setting and Eddie Redmayne smuggling beasts through customs.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is in theaters November 18. The second installment has a release date of November 16, 2018.
Check out the streamed event here for the panel.
