Alfonso Cuaron in talks to direct Harry Potter spin-off Fantastic Beasts?

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

As reported last week, the Harry Potter spin-off trilogy, FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM, is moving forward at a rapid pace to meet the announced release date of November 18, 2016. The Potter-verse has plenty of room to tell other stories, and the saga itself grossed an insane amount of money (over 7 billion worldwide) so it was really only a matter of time before we began to explore more of what was going in that world. Despite this, I think even the most die-hard Potter fans were worried that this might simply be a cash grab, but a tweet from Nikki Finke inspires some confidence.

Alfonso Cuaron more recently earned an Academy Award for his direction on the space tale, GRAVITY, but he may be more known to Potter-heads for directing the third film in the series, HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN. At the time, the stylistic choices done in Azkaban were a stark contrast to the warm and feel-good vibes of the first two movies. However, in retrospect, we see that Cuaron completely set the tone for the rest of the saga, allowing the series and the characters to mature and progress. Even composer John Williams was pushed to take the infamous Hedwig Theme into darker territories. The end result was one of the best films in the series (my personal favorite) as well as one of John Williams’ greatest film scores of the last decade.

Whether or not Cuaron takes the gig, this actually bodes well for us Potter fans. This is a sign that they are approaching this new trilogy seriously and are looking to sign on some talent to bring it to fruition. I was mildly interested before, but now they certainly have my attention.

FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM is set to hit theaters on November 18, 2016.