JK Rowling's 'Harry Potter' Spinoff 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' Is Happening — But Who's Gonna Direct It?

We know this one's unlikely, but don't crush our dreams. Whedon's built his career around the creation and/or expansion of sci-fi and fantasy worlds. From Buffy and Firefly to The Avengers and even Much Ado About Nothing, we think his wit and intelligence would mesh well with Rowling's. Add their shared love of ragtag families, heroics, and magical things (not to mention their penchant for killing off our favorite characters) and you've got a match made in nerd heaven.

Whedon is still, of course, working heavily with Marvel for the next few years, so he probably wouldn't have the time unless we waited until 2050 to get this thing going. With the exception of Shakespeare he also tends to prefer to direct his own writing. BUT DON'T CRUSH OUR DREAMS.

Just look at that smirk. He knows what he can do. Jackson directed some of those non-Harry Potter biggest fantasy hits of all time. Lord of the Rings or somesuch. Point is: He's used to dealing with intimidatingly large mythologies, and with bringing to life a whole host of weird mythical creatures that Fantastic Beasts is guaranteed to introduce.

Jackson's not a perfect director; he has a habit of stretching things far past their comfortable stretching limit, and of forgetting to fill in the spaces in between the visually stunning creatures and the mythology with actual story. He's also got his own fantasy franchise still underway, so he might not wanna pack on another one. But it's intriguing to picture, at the very least.

Did you see Life of Pi? Lee knows how to direct the visually stunning, and he's got the Oscar(s) to prove it. Of course, he also directed Hulk, sooooo ...

We think it's unlikely that Warner Bros. goes the animated route with these films — based purely on the success of the live-action previous Harry Potter films — but if they do, there's one guy they should call, and it's Hayao Miyazaki. He may have just directed his supposed last film, but who could possibly be better to bring JK Rowling's wizarding world to life than the director of Howl's Moving Castle, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and many more of the most brilliant animated features of our time (and all time)? The answer is no one, and that's the end of that.

Cuaron is by far the most Harry Potter experienced out of the lot, having actually directed one of the eight original films. Prisoner of Azkaban was one of the stand-outs of the series, darkening and expanding the world in small but meaningful ways. Cuaron made the world weirder, creepier, and somehow grittier and more colorful at the same time. It wasn't perfect — we still have questions about that werewolf — but Curaon knows how to mix the hyper-realistic with the beauty and even optimism (A Little Princess, anyone?) of the fantastical.

Let's put Spider-man: Turn Off the Dark behind us for a minute. Taymor made a pretty big career blunder with that one, but separate from that she's proved herself to be a very intriguing filmmaker, especially when it comes to infusing a world with such dynamic visuals they feel like magic. Across the Universe was theoretically set in a world without magic, but it didn't feel or look it. And have you seen her Lion King? That can only be created by a woman with vast reserves of imagination.

Chances of it actually happening seem slim — it might not be fer forte, and even if it was....well, Spider-man did happen.

I know, I know, you're groaning right now. It's ok, we're kind of groaning, too. But face it: There was a time when Tim Burton was a visionary director. Admit it, Edward Scissorhands made you feel all the things. You still think about Beetlejuice, and not just because of Robin Thicke. Big Fish was even interesting.

So if Burton wanted to get out of the giant rut he's been digging for himself these past few years, and maybe even do a film that — gasp! — didn't include Johnny Depp or Helena Bonham Carter, this might be a good opportunity for that. We doubt it will happen, and we have no idea how it would turn out if it did, but there's a lot we don't know about the project itself at this stage. Why not experiment a little? Honestly we're still trying to sell ourselves on it, but hey, we already know vaguely weird and heavily visual magical worlds are Burton's favorite place to be.

They did The Matrix! But they also did The Matrix: Reloaded and Cloud Atlas. Nevertheless, the Wachowski siblings find their names bandied about for comic book movies all the time, why not Harry Potter? They've contracted with Warner Bros. again, so we at least know they're on the studio's radar.

As you can see from this list, we favor people who love the weird, visually interesting world the Wizarding World works best as. Jonze fits the bill. Just look at the trailer for 2009's Where the Wild Things Are .

Uggggh, this is it. The big one. The dream. We can't even tell you how badly we want Del Toro to direct this movie. Imagine this: JK Rowling screenwriting, Del Toro directing, and Tom Hiddleston starring as a young Newt Scamander. It's like we're about to find ourselves hyperventilating all over again.

Del Toro's a huge Harry Potter fan, and has spoken out about the fact that he regrets not having signed on to direct the third movie when it was offered to him. He's also said that when it comes to the Wizarding World all he really wants is a big playground to play on to explore and bring that world to life. From Pan's Labrynth to Hellboy we know he makes the most of those playgrounds. We think he's exactly what this film needs to round out an already uber-promising premise.

Guillermo Del Toro, if you ever happen to read this: This is it. This is your chance. TAKE IT. For all of us.

Just kidding. This should never happen.