Fantastic Beasts 3 Hits Production Delay, But Not A Very Long One

The third Fantastic Beasts movie has hit a bit of a speedbump. Production on the film was expected to begin this July, but now cameras are set to start rolling in the fall, according to a new report from Deadline. Why the production delay?

According to the site, Warner Bros. simply wants more time in pre-production, which sounds like a good thing. The move is supposedly part of management's belief that giving the creative teams more time will lead to a better end result, and again, that seems positive, particularly after the less-than-stellar critical reception to the most recent film, The Crimes of Grindelwald.

Previous Warner Bros. administrations had the tendency to rush event films to meet release dates, and in this case Fantastic Beasts 3 was rumored to be 2020. Warner Bros. executives now have a new approach of allowing big productions to brew as needed," Deadline said.

According to the report, Fantastic Beasts actors are now being told about the production delay so they can adjust their own schedules accordingly. This is the third of five planned Fantastic Beasts movies.

2016's Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them made $814 million worldwide, with 2018's sequel Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald taking in $648.8 million globally. Together they have made around $1.4 billion.

Both films were directed by David Yates, and he's expected to direct the third one as well. The series stars Eddie Redmayne as magizoologist Newt Scamander in a story written by J.K. Rowling and set before the events of the Harry Potter series.