It feels like it’s been forever, but Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, aka the third movie in the new franchise (and also referred to as Fantastic Beasts 3), is finally pushing out trailers and gearing up for its big, splashy release. While we’ve already seen (and heard) a little bit about what to expect thanks to the The Secrets of Dumbledore trailer, we’ve also learned a bit more from Jacob actor Dan Fogler about the new movie. He’s not releasing major information – no one is accusing him of being Tom Holland with spoilers here – but he did share details that have me pumped for the upcoming movie release, particularly given how the second film went.
To me, one of the most compelling arcs in the Fantastic Beasts movies is the story of Jacob and Queenie, who have struggled with forbidden love given he is a muggle and she is a pureblood wizard. This is a theme in the Harry Potter era, too, but we see it play out with adults to disastrous consequences in these movies. Another thing that’s great but much more so in the first Fantastic Beasts film is simply Jacob playing around in the Wizarding World. From what he told That Hashtag Show in an interview, this time around Jacob is going to get back into some of the stuff that made the first movie so fun.
Well, like the first one, I was in 75% of the movie… I do get a lot to do. I mean I had some major stuff. The second movie, I mean I guess I wasn’t running from erumpent, I had more of a serious romantic journey, which is great, but this third one kind of combines everything.
This is good news, because the type of storytelling we got with Jacob and Queenie and Newt in the first movie worked a whole lot better than what came next. Just look at the trajectory of the two movies: The first flick in the franchise Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was quite popular. It made over $814 million worldwide and is running at 74% from the critics on Rotten Tomatoes. Subsequently, The Crimes of Grindelwald – which got a whole lot heavier and more convoluted with its plot and introduced more Harry Potter lore – only made $654 million at the box office and is running at a paltry 36% on Rotten Tomatoes (even its audience score is a splat).
To be clear, that’s the lowest score of any movie in the franchise, including Harry Potter and Fantastic Beast films. So I think hearing the third movie is kind of looking to get back to its roots and focus more on Jacob and co. can only mean positive things.
Also speaking to That Hashtag Show, Dan Fogler spoke fondly of making the third movie. Again, he can’t get into details but he does says it’s “some people’s favorite” among the three Fantastic Beast movies made so far.
I can tell you what directors, producers, everyone involved have [said], that it’s the chemistry, the formula is really working, and it’s some people’s favorite movie out of the three. You know, it’s a lot to say, but you know I’m excited because I had a lot to do in it!
To me, even if some people disagree, if it’s true that a certain faction of people love this movie, there’s every reason to hope The Secrets of Dumbledore will be good and tick the franchise back into huge box office numbers and more positive reviews again. We’ll have to wait and see. A couple of trailers is a far cry from a full, multi-hour movie, but there’s not so much longer to wait for everything at this point. The flick is set to release on April 15, so have your wands at ready.
To see more of what’s coming, take a look at our full list of new movie releases.
