The Warner Bros. Pictures’s CEO, Kevin Tsujihara, discussed the lower performance of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald on the international box office and affirmed that [J.K Rowling] is rewriting the script for the franchise’s third film. The interview was published by the North-American newspaper Los Angeles Time on February 27.
“The second film didn’t perform as well as the first”, admitted the executive. “But I think we know what we need to do to get the film hopefully even better than the first one”, he said, confident.
The executive revealed that Rowling is working on the script for the third film and that this will help to “get it right”. Bearing in mind that, during the promotion of The Crimes of Grindelwald, the author had confirmed that the script for the third film was ready, now she is rewriting it. The filming of the third story was also postponed in months.
Comparing with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which raised US$ 814 million on the box office, the second film got US$ 161 million less, being the least lucrative of all Wizarding World films.
Kevin Tsujihara also discussed the challenges of producing a film that will delight Harry Potter fans without making intermediate spectators confused. “That fan base really knows the lore and they want to go deep into these characters. But what you don’t want to do is intimidate people. You want to be able to create a stand-alone movie that’s enjoyable for someone who isn’t steeped in the lore”, he said.
The third film of the Fantastic Beasts‘ series neither has had a title nor a premiere date defined yet. Part of the story will take place in Brazil, according to the actor Dan Fogler, who portrays the No-Maj Jacob Kawalski.
Translated into English by Caroline Dorigon
Edited by Aline Michel
