The Death of Fantastic Beasts: Why Was It Cancelled?

Fans of the Harry Potter series were filled with hope and high expectations when they found out the Fantastic Beasts series would be coming to the big screen. It felt like an opportunity to relive the magic of watching the Harry Potter movies for the first time. But after the first movie, things started to go downhill, leading to an indefinite pause in movie production, with only three of the five films released. Many don’t expect the series to make a cinematic comeback, as it’s been riddled with issues that have proved too large to overcome.

Before exploring what went wrong for the Fantastic Beasts series, it’s important to note that when the movies were first in development, the director and everyone else involved in the production weren’t expecting it to be a five-film series. J.K. Rowling announced it unexpectedly during a press screening for the first film, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. It may just be that the production of more than three movies was never truly going to happen, even if all the problems the series has experienced hadn’t occurred.

What was it that went so wrong for the series, you ask? Well, it was a combination of issues involving several controversies and poor reception, leading to low box office numbers and bad reviews.

Poor Box Office Performance

While the three Fantastic Beasts movies raked in millions, the numbers just barely compare compared to the original Harry Potter movies. The 2016 release of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them brought in $814 million, while the following two, The Crimes of Grindelwald and The Secrets of Dumbledore, saw progressively lower numbers, taking in $654 million and $407 million, respectively. These numbers on their own aren’t bad compared to most movies, but they were off the mark for a franchise as large as the Harry Potter one. The lowest-grossing film of the original Harry Potter series was Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban; it brought in $795 million in 2004, or over $1 billion when adjusted for inflation.

Negative Reviews

The first Fantastic Beasts movie to be released was met with good reviews. The most significant criticism of it was that it couldn’t quite compare to the story and quality of the original Harry Potter series, which is understandable. The subsequent films were subject to negative criticism on many fronts. The second was criticised for putting too much into one film. The third, while having more positive sentiment than the second, was still criticised for having too much going on. Separating the second and third films from the controversies plaguing the actors and J.K. Rowling was also difficult for critics and viewers, contributing to their poorer reception.

Actor and Author Controversies

The most significant factor in the production pause was the multiple controversies involving leading actors and writer J.K. Rowling.

Johnny Depp

In 2016, Amber Heard filed for divorce from Johnny Depp, accusing him of abuse. This began intense turmoil for both actors, and accusations of Depp being a wife-beater were widely publicised. In response to the allegations and subsequent media circus, Depp sued Heard for defamation.

The controversy led to a great deal of bad publicity for Depp and the Fantastic Beasts movies, and unsurprisingly, Depp was asked to leave the franchise. Depp respected this wish while maintaining his stance that he was innocent, but you can understand why the franchise didn’t want to gamble on whether or not this was true. Unlike gambling at Revolut Casinos in the UK, the potential consequences of the wrong bet were too risky to accept.

Ezra Miller

Ezra Miller, who played Credence Barebone in the series and is also well-known for the show Flash, pleaded guilty to the misdemeanour of unlawful trespassing in 2023. The accusations surrounding the incident started in early 2022, just around the third film’s release. It came alongside an onslaught of other accusations, including disorderly conduct, harassment, and assault. Several parents have even filed protective orders against the actor, accusing Miller of inappropriate conduct with children. It created a messy situation for the franchise, making it difficult for production to continue.

J.K. Rowling

In 2017 and 2018, J.K. Rowling, the author of both the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts spin-off series, started to make negative news for liking transphobic tweets. However, the controversy reached a tipping point in 2019 when Rowling tweeted support of Maya Forstater, who lost her job for tweeting a statement denying that transgender women could change their biological sex.

Since then, Rowling has firmly maintained her stance opposing trans rights, greatly upsetting the community and its allies, leading many people and organisations to boycott the author and the Harry Potter franchise—including many lifelong fans. Even competitive Quidditch leagues, a sport inspired by the rules of Quidditch from the Harry Potter series, have opted to change the sport’s name to Quadball because of the implications of Rowling’s views.

Shifted Focus

At first, the Fantastic Beasts series was set to be the next big thing in the Harry Potter franchise. However, as time passed, the franchise’s focus shifted to other projects, like the TV adaptation of the original Harry Potter books, reducing the time and resources needed to produce new movies for the Fantastic Beasts series.

Is There Any Hope for the Series?

In 2023, the franchise’s director, David Yates, said that the production of the movies was paused and even said, ‘I’m sure at some point we may well be back’. But two years have passed since Yates said this, leading to the feeling that the series is over for good—just as other attempted book-to-film franchises were done after just a few movies, like The Chronicles of Narnia and the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. At this point, all signs suggest that there isn’t much hope for the series to continue.