Release Date Already Set for Second Fantastic Beasts Movie

The first Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them movie is still three months away, but producers have already set a date for its sequel: Nov. 16, 2018.

The news comes during a big week for Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, whose script-book for the play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (by Jack Thorne, based on a story by himself, Rowling and director John Tiffany) debuted on Sunday and sold 2 million copies in its first two days. Rowling and her Pottermore team are betting big on continued interest in the wizarding world, and the Fantastic Beasts movie franchise is conceived as a trilogy.

Rowling has written the screenplay for Fantastic Beasts herself, a departure from the Potter films. The first movie tells the story of Newt Scamander, author of Harry’s future textbook, traveling to New York City in the 1920s with dangerous magical beasts in tow. Warner Bros. tells Variety the second movie “moves deeper into an increasingly dark time for the wizarding world, where Newt and our other heroes have to decide on their allegiances.”

[Variety]