Rowling announces ‘Fantastic Beasts’ series of Potter prequels will be five movies
(MEDIA GENERAL) – Good news, Harry Potter fans! There is more Rowling canon headed your way.
On Thursday, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling announced the upcoming film “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” a prequel to the Harry Potter series due out in November, is actually the first of five prequels expected to be released in the coming years.
At a fan event in London, Rowling told fans in attendance that the original trilogy is expected to be stretched out to five films.
“We always knew it was going to be more than one movie,” Rowling said. “We’ve now done the plotting properly, so we’re pretty sure it’s going to be five movies.”
The first installment of the new franchise will be released to theaters Nov. 18.
You can understand why Rowling would be interested in adding on to Potter lore, not to mention Warner Bros. Latest reports have said the Harry Potter movie franchise has earned at least $21 billion (with a B) for the production company, and that number does not include revenue from the final Potter movie – “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2.”
For her part in writing the material, Rowling also reportedly is a billionaire. However, in 2012, Forbes bumped Rowling from their list of billionaires, saying she has sunk below the 10-figure threshold due to Britain’s high tax rates and her estimated $160 million in charitable giving.