The Newsroom

Harry Potter fans all over the world are excited due to the recent launching of the first movie out of the Fantastic Beast series. As Katie Walsh reviews in TribLive [1],

“Beasts” plunges us into this fresh magical world populated by actual grown ups - gangsters, babes and bakers - and this extra edge of sexy urban grime proves to be an intoxicating addition to the Potterverse. You'll immediately crave more.

And certainly, most fans have been caught within the wonders of the magical world once more, following Newt Scamander on his way through New York City in 1926.

Ever since the movie had been announced as early as two years ago, the series has been said to be a trilogy. During a fan event mid-October, J.K. Rowling revealed however that we are to expect five films, a fact that was later-on confirmed by her twitter account.

Whist fans rejoice at even more Harry Potter franchise, critics fear that expanding the series is but an immense stretch to gain maximum profit. Similar to the new Star Wars movies and Tolkien's The Hobbit being split into three films, it is possible that those new editions will not be able to live up to the fan community's expectations. Kevin McFarland [6] even questions whether the demand for more expansion is even "beginning to outweigh the strength of the original story that drew so many people in the first place."

In John DeFore's words [7], Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is

[l]ikely to draw in just about everyone who followed the Potter series and to please most of them, the picture also has things to offer for fantasy-friendly moviegoers who only casually observed that phenomenon. The latter group, however, may be less convinced that this spin-off demands the five feature-length installments Warner and Rowling have planned.

With the launching of the film on November 18th, most reviews remain generally positive. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, while set in the wider Harry Potter universe, "draws on Harry Potter's rich mythology to deliver a spinoff that dazzles with franchise-building magic all its own." [8] As Mike Ryan [9] writes,

It all has to be different. And it is, but, again, with just enough “sameness” to make us feel like we are at home again. I’m looking forward to wherever these movies are taking us. (And since there’s not much out there in terms of source material, that could be anywhere. And that’s kind of exciting.)

J.K. Rowling herself describes the story arch consisting of five films as ambitious, given that the series will span 19 years. It has already been revealed that the second movie will be set in both Paris and the U.K., expanding our knowledge about the Wizarding World to include other countries as well as in-depth descriptions of the first Wizarding War.

What do you think about the recent expansion to five films? Are you looking forward to even more films set in our beloved universe?

Sources
[1] http://triblive.com/aande/movies/11488249-74/beasts-fantastic-newt
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L46uZ7uu2bg, 50:46
[3] https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/786672299374157824
[4] http://www.theverge.com/2016/10/13/13276124/fantastic-beasts-and-where-to-find-them-five-movies-jk-rowling
[5] http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Fantastic-Beasts-Where-Find-Them-Movie-Trilogy-Shoot-U-K-43742.html
[6] https://www.wired.com/2016/11/fantastic-beasts-too-much-world-building/
[7] http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/fantastic-beasts-find-review-946770
[8] https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/fantastic_beasts_and_where_to_find_them
[9] http://uproxx.com/movies/fantastic-beasts-and-where-to-find-them-review/2/
[10] http://www.cinemablend.com/news/1587480/fantastic-beasts-2-wont-be-set-entirely-in-paris