Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a slim 54-page book written by J.K. Rowling as a Harry Potter spin-off. The book is based on a textbook studied by Harry Potter and classmates, a book which follows Newt Scamander’s beast-studying expeditions taking place about 70 years before the first Harry Potter story. Last we heard, J.K. Rowling was writing a screenplay adaptation of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
Take a wild guess how many films Warner wants to make out of this 54-page book. Three. The answer is three, because The Hobbit was three movies, so why not try to stretch three blockbusters out of even shorter source material? We’d make a joke about how Hollywood will make a blockbuster out of a Bazooka Joe wrapper next, but then we remembered they’re actually trying to do that. Any forced franchise you can think up will eventually be typed by a million scriptmonkeys in a Los Angeles Starbucks.
Variety reports Warner is planning “three megamovies” for the tiny spin-off story written in 2001. They won’t be a prequel, but rather an “extension of the wizarding world.” Well, that’s one way to squeeze more money from a sorcerer’s stone.