Newt Scamander actor Eddie Redmayne recently shared a little Fantastic Beasts 3 filming update. The "exciting" note came from him, and I have to say I'm excited to see Warner Bros. is taking its time with this movie, changing course from the initial plan to start filming over summer 2019 to reworking J.K. Rowling's script and now starting in early 2020.
Eddie Redmayne was at the Toronto International Film Festival promoting The Aeronauts when he was asked about Fantastic Beasts 3.
Well, we're meant to start shooting in the beginning of next year. The script is still being worked on. That's nothing -- I'm literally giving you nothing! I'm trying to do that thing of talking about it and saying nothing, because of the fear of getting told off. But no, it's happening, and it's really exciting.
That's not nothing to me! First of all, I'll take "really exciting" any day, even from an actor who is obviously biased because he's the star of the franchise. It's his job to talk up the movie. However, it is a slight surprise -- a pleasant one, maybe? -- to hear Eddie Redmayne tell ET the script is still being worked on.
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has talked about planning for five movies in this Fantastic Beasts franchise, and she's going to write all of them. However, The Crimes of Grindelwald script was a point of criticism for many fans.
In February 2019, now former Warner Bros. exec Kevin Tsujihara admitted the second movie was a disappointment; he said J.K. Rowling was working on the third movie's script to make it better:
The second film didn’t perform as well as the first, but I think we know what we need to do to get the third film hopefully even better than the first one. And J.K. Rowling is really working hard now on that third script, and we’re going to get it right. She has an incredible vision of where she wants to go with this that is incredibly exciting. The hardest part of the franchise is you have such a big core fan base. That fan base really knows the lore and they want to go deep into these characters. But what you don’t want to do is intimidate people. You want to be able to create a stand-alone movie that’s enjoyable for someone who isn’t steeped in the lore.
Fantastic Beasts 3 was originally set to start filming this past July 2019, but it was delayed several months to late autumn for more prep time, and to work on the script.
Also in February, actor Dan Fogler (Jacob Kowalski) said the filming delay was due to the sheer size of the third movie:
Yeah, we start in the fall. The movie is going to be gigantic! The reason we were given is that the movie is bigger than the first two combined. They needed more time to prep and they didn’t want to rush anything so they pushed it back. I can tell you that we are going to Brazil. I don’t really know much…[laughs]. I’ll get a script closer to when we start shooting.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them opened in November 2016, with Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald opening in November 2018. Fantastic Beasts 3 -- title to come -- was originally eyeing a November 2020 release date to stick with the two-year schedule. But, wisely, The Powers That Be decided to take a step back after the second movie wasn't received as well as the first.
In April 2019, Fantastic Beasts 3 got an official release date of November 12, 2021. At the time, it was noted (via Pottermore) that production was slated to begin in Spring 2020.
So we went from Summer 2019 to Fall 2019 to Spring 2020 for production, or "the beginning of next year," per Eddie Redmayne. To quote the Avengers, whatever it takes.
There's no need to rush a movie until it's ready, and Fantastic Beasts 3 has a big job ahead. Fans have a lot of questions, especially after that massive Dumbledore twist, and J.K.Rowling did promise "answers" are coming. Here's what else we know so far about what's ahead in Fantastic Beasts 3.
