Should 'Fantastic Beasts' Become A Franchise?

Let me preface this by saying that I've been a Harry Potter fan since I was 9 years old (I'm now 23) and, yes, I was one of those midnight book and movie release fans. I love Harry Potter and I love J.K. Rowling, so when Warner Bros. announced that a Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them film was happening with Rowling attached, I was ecstatic. There can never be too much Harry Potter in your life, right? On Wednesday, Warner Bros. CEO Kevin Tsujihara confirmed a Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them trilogy and its release dates and revealed that the studio is considering having Fantastic Beasts become more than a trilogy. So, on second thought, maybe there can be too much Harry Potter.

Now, we already knew that the first Fantastic Beasts film would be released in 2016, on Nov. 18 to be precise. (I've already marked my calendar, of course.) But the Tsujihara's confirmation that the Harry Potter spin-off film will be "at least a trilogy," with the second and third films being released in 2018 and 2020 respectively, is something entirely new for fans that have been gunning for more from the wizarding world. Don't get me wrong, I'm excited for what Fantastic Beasts will bring, especially with J.K. Rowling on the script. But is a second Potter franchise a good thing?

I've always been inclined to say yes when asked if I'd want more Harry Potter in my life. But, following the close call last week when J.K. Rowling tweeted an anagram that seemed like a confirmation of more Potter (it turned out to be related to Fantastic Beasts), I've decided that maybe Rowling and the Potter fandom should let sleeping dogs lie. I love Harry Potter, I always have and I always will, but that doesn't mean that I'd want Rowling to bring him back on a new adventure. Harry's story ran its course and Rowling let him settle down, he deserved it and we should be happy with it.

You're probably wondering what that has to do with my prejudice against Fantastic Beasts becoming an eight-part series like Potter before it — if, of course, that's what Tsujihara's statement was hinting at. Well, frankly, I feel like Warner Bros. might be getting greedy with the fierce devotion Potterheads show for Rowling and her work. Of course we're going to see the Fantastic Beasts movies, we'd be bad fans if we didn't and it's been a long time since we were last able to fall into the wizarding world. But, as a longtime fan, this just feels like a little much and almost as if Warner Bros. might be trying a little too hard to make Newt Scamander and his travels the next Harry Potter, The Boy Who Lived.

Newt's adventures will undoubtably be thrilling and emotional in their own rite (he is of Rowling's design after all and in her greatness we trust), but I'm not convinced that a second crack at Potter greatness is smart. Because, to me and I'm sure there has to be at least one other Potter fan out there that feels the same way, there is only one Harry Potter — he can't be reincarnated or rebooted. And that's exactly what I feel that Warner Bros. is trying to do by expanding Fantastic Beasts beyond a trilogy.

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