Warner Bros Discovery is set to ask J K Rowling about a Cursed Child movie, with the Fantastic Beasts franchise apparently dead in the water.
The tenure of new Warner Bros Discovery boss David Zaslav has not been on the uneventful side, courtesy primarily of his decision to slash much of what the Warner Bros studio had in mind. Complete movies and staff have found themselves dragged to his recycle bin, as he plots a future for the newly merged company.
Part of that future was revealed a week or so back, when he admitted that he was pushing towards a franchise-driven future for Warner Bros. So much so that he noted that on an earnings call his wish to do another Harry Potter film.
It’s not like the studio hasn’t tried. The Fantastic Beasts franchise stands at three out of five planned films so far, with no sign of the fourth movie going into production. Truth is, nobody expects it to. Returns for the last film were down, and the broader Wizarding World franchise has been enveloped as much by the news stories around it (this piece isn’t going deep into culture wars if that’s okay. The stories aren’t that tricky to find).
A report at Puck News now points to Zaslav – instead of trying to keep the Fantastic Beasts films going – trying to get a film adaptation of Harry Potter And The Cursed Child off the ground.
This is the Broadway and West End play, originally split across two shows (it’s been amalgamated into a single very long production in the US), set some time after the first run of Potter stories. It’s also one that J K Rowling has been insistent wouldn’t become a film.
However, Zaslav is going to give it another go, although it’s going to take some persuading for Rowling to give the idea the greenlight. But with no Fantastic Beasts 4 on the horizon, this is the clearest route forward for Potter on the big screen. We await developments.
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