J.K. Rowling’s 54-page textbook will be a movie trilogy, Warner Bros. recently announced. The decision is akin to New Line Cinema’s decision to turn The Hobbit, a 300-page novel, into a movie trilogy.
Opinions on whether or not The Hobbit worked as an impromptu trilogy vary, but the fact is that some serious finagling with the source material will be necessary if “Fantastic Beasts” is to find and keep an audience for three entire movies.
Quick disclaimer: I never read the Harry Potter books, but not for lack of want. I did, however, manage to catch the movies, making my opinion on this entire decision much more limited than any of you who are “true” fans of the Harry Potter world. Regardless, I’m having a troublesome time finding reasons to be excited about a story that doesn’t actually exist yet.
Yes, it takes place in the same world of wizards and muggles, which we all want I suppose. But who is in charge of the story, especially since we know that most of it will be made on the spot?
If Rowling has a lot to do with the project, I’m feeling quite hopeful—have you read her other book, The Casual Vacancy? It’s fantastic so far—so until more details on how Fantastic Beasts will be shaped come out, I’m not holding my breath for this new trilogy.
What do you fellow muggles think? Will this be a magical time spent in the theater, or should we be defending against the dark arts of prequels? Let me know what you think below.
Now, let’s say Rowling came up to me (fingers crossed) and asked me what I think she should do with this intricate world she has created. Again, I’m simply working off of the movies, but I’ve always been very interested in what the wizards are actually using their hard-learned magic for after attending schools like Hogwarts.
Yes, we have the Ministry of Magic and the Aurors, but it seems as if all of the jobs that require magic are simply there to prevent other people from using magic or keeping muggles out of the loop. If we were to continue the stories set in this world, I would want to explore why it’s so important for generations of wizards to maintain their traditions and become powerful sorcerers and sorceresses.
What if the wizards existed to keep the balance between nature and technology in check? The point could be that they keep to these traditions in order to protect fantastic beasts from muggles and vice-versa. They could also be working to prevent man from soiling nature with industrialization.
For all I know, this may have already been brought up in the books or debunked, but I still think it would make a fantastic story with adult wizards at the centerpiece. Exploring the fragile relationships between muggles and wizards would definitely be fascinating territory to cover, after all.
Or we could just pull from the fan art…
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