How many Fantastic Beasts movies have there been already, and how many will there be in total? Here's what we know about Fantastic Beasts' future.
How many Fantastic Beasts movies are there, and how many will there be in the end? The Harry Potter prequel series initially started out as a standalone adventure, with Newt Scamander collecting information about the world's mythical creatures as he traverses the globe. But things changed along the way and instead of it being a fun side story set in the Wizarding World, much of Fantastic Beasts' overarching narrative has established a throughline to the Harry Potter series.
Now, Newt Scamander and his friends (and the ministries of magic around the world) are embroiled in a war between Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald, who wants to kickstart a revolution. It's all part of a grand story that was initially inspired by the textbook Harry Potter had in his possession in-universe but has since grown into something much bigger — and in many ways, rivaling the scale of the story from the original Harry Potter series, bringing together several factions.
At the moment, there are three Fantastic Beasts movies — Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016), Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018), and Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022) — with each taking place not too long after the previous one and each one working in chronological order. All three movies have been directed by David Yates, who also directed the final four Harry Potter films. But while the first two Fantastic Beasts films were written entirely by J.K. Rowling, The Secrets of Dumbledore saw Steve Kloves return to co-write alongside the author; Kloves notably wrote the screenplays for every Harry Potter movie other than Order of the Phoenix.
How Many Fantastic Beasts Movies Will There Be?
Currently, five Fantastic Beasts movies are expected. Shortly before Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them released in 2016, it was announced that four sequels were planned which would take place between 1926 and 1945, tackling a different series of events in each installment. Not only does 1945 mark the end of the Second World War but also the end of Dumbledore and Grindelwald's feud canonically, so unless something changes, that's still the year the final Fantastic Beasts movie should be set in.
Fantastic Beasts was originally planned to be a trilogy, but once the full story was mapped out, two additional films were announced. In some ways, it's similar to what happened with James Cameron's Avatar sequels, which added additional movies as the story plan unfolded. However, depending on how Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore does, it's theoretically possible only one more movie may happen. According to franchise producer David Heyman, Fantastic Beasts 4 doesn't have a script yet and there's no planned release date — a stark difference to The Crimes of Grindelwald and The Secrets of Dumbledore which always had earmarked release dates.
Next: Fantastic Beasts' Grindelwald Is A Better Villain Than Voldemort
