Fantastic Beasts 3 Has An Official Release Date

Fantastic Beasts 3 Has An Official Release Date

The Fantastic Beasts series hasn't been setting the box office on fire in quite the same way as the Harry Potter movies did before it, but that doesn't mean the series hasn't been making money or that it doesn't have fans looking forward to the next entry. Those fans waiting on an explanation of the bomb dropped at the end of The Crimes of Grindlewald will need to wait a bit longer, as the third entry in the franchise has been given an official release date of November 12, 2021.

This puts part three a bit behind the anticipated schedule, as the first two films came out two years apart, which would have resulted in Fantastic Beasts 3 coming out in November of 2020, instead, it will come out a full year later.

It was announced a few months ago that Fantastic Beasts 3 would not go into production this summer as previously scheduled, and would instead start filming in the fall. It seems that the quick turnaround between the first two films may be getting the blame for the second film's poorer performance, and it was decided the third film needed more time to prep.

The extra year of time could be for any number of reasons. However, we can be sure that the extra year isn't happening due to any significant retooling of the franchise's planned structure. The announcement of the date posted on Pottermore also confirms that the Fantastic Beasts franchise is still part of a five-film series.

There was some question as to whether or not we would still get all five announced films in the Fantastic Beasts series after the most recent movie, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindlewald, became the lowest grossing movie in the entire Wizarding World franchise. It became the first movie to do less than $200 million domestically and the first to do less than $700 million globally.

Of course, "underperforming" for a Wizarding World movie is a relative term. The movie still did over $650 million globally and was a top 10 grossing movie in 2018. If your movie is doing worse than expected and is still making hundreds of millions of dollars, you've got a good problem on your hands.

Getting a movie that will need extensive post production digital effects done in 12 months or so was clearly deemed too fast, and so the film will have a longer than normal period to do post-production work.

While fans won't want to wait for another movie, the wait is the only negative to letting the next movie have more time. The more time all aspects of the movie have to do their best work, the better it will all be, and even the fans who wish the movie was coming faster will certainly be happier with a better movie, no matter how long it takes.

The biggest issue with the delay for Fantastic Beasts 3 may have nothing to do with it, and much more to do with Ezra Miller's long gestating Flash movie. It likely delays that movie even more, though it's also a Warner Bros. production, so the studio is clearly taking that into account. The fact that we haven';t heard anything about Flash going into production earlier than expected likely means it will be delayed even more.

November 12, 2021 was an empty weekend on the release calendar, and this time frame has largely been good to the Wizarding World movies over the years. There's currently an untitled Marvel movie set for the weekend before, but since we have no idea what Marvel has planned after this year, it's anybody's guess if that movie could cause box office concerns for Fantastic Beasts 3.

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grtindelwald revealed the character played by Ezra Miller to apparently be a lost Dumbledore sibling. How all of ithis is going to fit into the canon established by the Harry Potter movies we can only guess at this point, and fan theories will now have a little extra time to figure everything out.

Brie Larson Had To Work On Her 'Cool' Face For Captain Marvel

Brie Larson Had To Work On Her 'Cool' Face For Captain Marvel

It took a lot for Room actress Brie Larson to become Captain Marvel. We’ve seen the posts of the months of workouts the actress accomplished to get into shape. However, it takes more than heavy lifting and donning an expensive suit in order to truly become the types of heroes we’ve come to expect in the MCU. Recently, Brie Larson revealed she actually had to train to learn what she dubs Carol Danvers’ “cool face.”

During a recent visit to Jimmy Kimmel Live, the actress revealed that she actually worked with the stunt coordinators on Captain Marvel’s stances. There are moments we see the character in trailers and in posters looking extremely fierce, moments that did not come naturally to Brie Larson, who revealed her “cool face” was just one of “tons of things” she had to learn in order to play the character. She said:

I trained for nine months and got super strong. But then also you have to learn weird things, like how to make a ‘cool’ face. Yeah, they usually are laughing at you while you are trying to find it because it’s hard. At least, I mean it was for me. I would just bust up laughing. So, when I look at all of those posters with like my flaming hair and stuff it cracks me up because I know where I started.

In particular, Brie Larson mentions a scene that fans of the movie have already seen in the trailers. She said the scene is hard to miss because her hair is on fire and she looks somewhat otherworldly, but that it took a long time before she got to that point with the coordinators on set.

In fact, she even showed Kimmel what her original face looked like while she was practicing. Long story short, it’s easy to see why her “cool face” ended up being something Brie Larson really had to work at to play the iconic character.

I mean, that’s cute, but it’s not exactly as worldly and wary as the look she ultimately gives, a look that’s been splashed all over the marketing for Captain Marvel.

Millions of dollars are bandied about to make movies like Captain Marvel a reality. So while in some ways it’s ridiculous to think about someone being at their job and being told they need to work on their “cool face,” in other ways, we totally wouldn’t buy Brie Larson looking wide-eyed and amused at the camera.

Studios really need to get these details right in order to sell a character to the audience and I suppose I’m as thankful that Brie Larson practiced this as much as she did myriad lunges and squats.

We won’t have too much longer to wait and see if Captain Marvel is all that and a bag of potato chips. (Feel free to insert another nineties phrase if you have a better one.) The new MCU movie officially hits theaters on March 8, 2019. You can see the full list of all of the other fine movies hitting theaters in 2019 with CinemaBlend's release schedule or check out what reviews are saying about the flick.

John Wick Kill Count: All The Kills In All 3 Movies

John Wick Kill Count: All The Kills In All 3 Movies

SPOILER ALERT: The following article contains massive spoilers for John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. If you have not yet seen the film, continue at your own risk!

There are many film franchises featuring characters who do everything in their power not to end the lives of their enemies/opponents, but John Wick is definitely not counted among them. Since launching in 2014, the assassin-centric series has demonstrated that it doesn’t really pay much attention to standard human morality, and has generated a death toll far greater than most action movies. This is a trilogy where people are being executed in crazy numbers, to the point where you’d think that it might be impossible to get a full tally.

Well, guess again. With John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum now in theaters, we’ve gone through the entire trilogy and tabulated all of the many, many kills that occur on screen – and not just those by John Wick himself. We’ve broken it all down in the feature below, so read on and discover the crazy amount of bloodshed we’ve witnessed in these movies thus far:

Guns: 73

It’s established very early in the John Wick trilogy that the hero definitely has a weapon of choice, and it’s clearly a gun. While this count also includes the confirmed kills by Marcus, Ms. Perkins, and Winston’s men, John accounts for the vast majority, as he absolutely mows down enemy assassins as he works towards completing his revenge mission.

Swords/Knives: 6

Of course, John Wick isn’t only deadly when armed with a loaded firearm, as he also proves to be quite efficient when handling knives as well. He doesn’t get too many opportunities to show off this skill in his first movie, but he does get a few good stabs and slices in among the many, many headshots. This includes his final kill, where he purposefully gets stabbed by Viggo Tarasov just so that he can take the weapon away and use it himself.

Other: 12

This is far and away the most depressing category in this feature simply because one of the 12 counted is John Wick’s puppy being kicked to death by Iosef Tarasov and his friends. That being said, the feature also has more death by explosions than any other movie in the series so far (seven), and adds in a broken neck, a strangulation, and a couple of car collisions.

Guns: 110

You’d think that 73 gun deaths would be hard to top, but director Chad Stahelski finds a way in John Wick: Chapter 2. It helps that the action flick features multiple sequences as big as the Red Circle Club rampage, including his escape through the tunnels following the “assassination” of Gianna D'Antonio (more on that in a minute).

Swords/Knives: 2

John Wick: Chapter 2 definitely has the most skewed kill ratio of all the movies so far, as only about 1.7 percent are executed via a blade. That being said, this is the method for one of the most significant deaths in the movie, as it’s with Ares’ own knife that John manages to take her out of the equation.

Other: 7

We really haven’t seen a good amount of stealth from John Wick in the trilogy to this point, as he clearly prefers to go in guns blazing, but we do get to see a couple of more quiet kills at the start of the second movie – which results in a few bodies hitting the floor because of broken necks and even some garrote action. We’ve also counted the death of Gianna D'Antonio here, as she definitely dies from her slit wrists before John puts a bullet in her head. And, if course, this is also the film where we actually get to see what the eponymous killer can do with a pencil, as he ends two lives with one writing utensil.

Before we get into John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, you can revisit all of the John Wick-specific kills by clicking play on our awesome supercut below:

Guns: 124

If you went into John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum thinking that the sequel wouldn’t be able to top the gun kill count from the previous installment, you’re clearly not paying attention. It’s worth noting that John does get a lot more help in this one than in the previous movies, as Sofia racks up a pretty high body count while under attack from Berrada's men in Casablanca, but the film most definitely affirms that the titular character knows his way around a firearm.

Swords/Knives: 32

There are far more deaths by sword/knife in the third installment of this franchise – mostly because of the stealthy attacks that are executed against John’s allies by Zero and his gang. That being said, John himself does use a blade more than a few times in the movie, most notably during the first act museum attack, and then later when he is accosted by Zero’s crew on motorcycles upon his return to New York. And, of course, there is the big final battle in The Continental as well.

Other: 11

John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum stars with an nontraditional kill, as our protagonist takes out an opponent with just a book – but from there we get to see 10 others scattered throughout the film. A good number of them are actually animal kills – three by dogs, and three by horses – and motorcycle crashes and a chucked axe complete the count.

It’s kind of hard to imagine the next sequel actually managing to go even bigger than what we’ve already seen, but given the cliffhanger at the end of Chapter 3, it certainly seems like Chad Stahelski, Keanu Reeves and the rest of the company are going to try. Be sure to stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for all of the latest developments about the John Wick franchise going forward, and hit the comments section below to tell us about your favorite kill in the series thus far!

Will Avengers: Endgame Save 2019 From A Massive Box Office Slump?

Will Avengers: Endgame Save 2019 From A Massive Box Office Slump?

Although there are some very big movies on the radar for this year, so far the 2019 box office has not had an incredible run. While titles like Shazam!, Glass, Captain Marvel and How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World have done well for theaters, so far the box office is down from its great heights over the last couple of years.

Unfortunately in 2019, the box office is in its worst slump at this point in the year since 2013. Yes, six years ago. Through the weekend, the box office domestically is at $2.74 billion. Any number that begins with a “b” probably sounds pretty good, but actually it's not a great number compared to previous years.

However, what is arguably the biggest movie in a decade is coming out this month in Avengers: Endgame. Will the new Marvel movie be able to save the box office from a massive slump?

So far, early box office predictions have Avengers: Endgame making $200 million to $250 million domestically during opening weekend. That’s a large total. Most estimates have the movie breaking $2 billion and some estimates have it hitting closer to $2.5 billion.

If Avengers: Endgame doesn’t reach at least the minimum of the heights expected of it, it will be a bit of a shock. Ticket pre-sales have already been insane for the movie, hitting records. Allegedly people are even trying to resell tickets for inflated prices for prime showings, which is just wild to think about.

Suffice to say, if Avengers: Endgame doesn’t “save” the box office from a slump in 2019, it certainly won’t hurt.

Once Avengers: Endgame kickstarts the box office into gear, it should hopefully get much easier from here on out. Disney kicked off with Dumbo but has three more live action adventures coming in 2019. The long-awaited Episode IX is also coming from that studio as well.

Then, there are crowd pleasers such as Hobbs and Shaw, The Secret Life of Pets 2, Godzilla: King of the Monsters and even outside-the-box titles like Rocketman still coming in 2019. It’s a little early to get too concerned about the entire year’s box office total yet.

Why is the box office down? Titles like Hellboy and Missing Link have actively bombed. Other titles have failed to do as well as expected, including The LEGO Movie 2, which made less than half of what its predecessor The LEGO Movie made worldwide.

Even expected hits like Happy Death Day 2U were sluggish. Although that movie was made for $9 million and went on to make over $64 million worldwide, the original Happy Death Day was reportedly made for $4.5 million and made $125 million+ worldwide. Franchises such as those have definitely been a case of law of diminishing returns.

Previously industry experts have not seemed concerned with the slow start to the box office. The last few years have seen boosts early on from titles like Black Panther, Beauty and the Beast, Logan and Deadpool, so there is not necessarily a reason to worry because a flick like Shazam! or Dumbo isn’t reaching the exact same heights.

Related: Shazam! Box Office – The DC Hit Repeats And Bests All Newcomers

Still, the last couple of years, the movie theater box office has been pretty incredible, breaking records for overall totals ($11.9 billion domestically in 2018) and for individual studios. It’s been helped in part by the convenience of early ticketing, the addition of movie subscriptions like Stubs A-List or Cinemark Movie Club, and a general wealth of movies hitting broad swaths of audiences.

Still, services like MoviePass have faltered and it may also be true that people are less excited about frequenting the movies as they were when these types of subscriptions were brand spanking new.

I suppose there is a future where titles like Hobbs and Shaw or Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker also don’t do as well as expected, provided Avengers: Endgame is everything the box office has anticipated, the movie theater business should still be in good if not great shape this year.

If you want to get in on the fun ahead of the release of Avengers: Endgame on April 26, join our Marvel death pool.

The Moment In The Hobbs And Shaw Trailer That’s Very Special To Dwayne Johnson

The Moment In The Hobbs And Shaw Trailer That’s Very Special To Dwayne Johnson

Earlier this month at CinemaCon, Universal Pictures threw all of its energy into celebrity performances from the likes of Octavia Spencer, Kevin Hart (holding a rabbit meant to represent his Secret Life of Pets 2 character), Tiffany Haddish, Danny Boyle—I could go on and on. But the particular highlight was a new Hobbs & Shaw trailer, which really amped the energy in the room.

Ahead of that happening though, Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham and David Leitch were in attendance to talk about why the Hobbs & Shaw Fast and Furious spinoff movie is going to deliver the goods. The three men talked about how the Fast and Furious spinoff movie combines the cultures that Johnson and Statham are familiar with and grew up in, and there’s a specific moment shown in the trailer that is very near and dear to Dwayne Johnson’s heart.

Here’s what he revealed:

There’s a moment in [the] trailer where the energy changes… and there’s something called the Haka. You guys familiar with the Haka? OK great. Well, we don’t do that in this movie. But what we do is called the ‘Siva Tau.’ The Siva Tau is the Samoan version of the Haka and we still call upon our ancestors. [In this trailer] I leave the Siva Tau and for the very first time in a blockbuster tentpole movie we’re very proud to showcase our two cultures, England and culture Samoa.

There’s been a push to incorporate more from a diverse variety of cultures in movies lately. In fact, the Haka that Dwayne Johnson mentions was put to use at the Aquaman premiere by Jason Momoa and that culture was brought into that movie as well.

Dwayne Johnson is both black and Samoan and he has been open about his family’s history and his pride related to that history. He recently tweeted about how he was able to “transcend race in wrestling” so that he wouldn’t just “get booked that way," but he's ready to share his heritage in a big way in Hobbs & Shaw.

Johnson went on to state at CinemaCon 2019:

It’s the very first time we’ve seen Samoa ever featured and ever showcased in the movie…Yes we have the explosions and the epic-ness of everything you’d expect from a Fast and Furious movie but now you also have this mana, the spirit that we lived in Jason and I, David, all of us.

Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham went on to talk about the hugging – and joke about too close hugging—as well as talk about the camaraderie on the set of Hobbs & Shaw. So even though Deckard Shaw and Luke Hobbs have a bit of a competitive relationship, it’s clear the idea of “family” that’s such a big deal to the Fast and Furious franchise is going to translate into this new offshoot as well.

In terms of the Siva Tau, the Samoan war dance, we’ve already seen a preview of this sort of chanting thanks to an official photo shared by Dwayne Johnson himself.

If that image doesn’t already give you an idea of the vibe of Hobbs & Shaw perhaps a look at the new trailer is what you need.

Now that we’ve seen a the sneak preview at the scene, I’m very hopeful that you’ll get to see the special moment that was a big deal for Dwayne Johnson soon. After all Hobbs & Shaw is officially released on Friday August 2, which is not so very far away. More footage is coming and it will definitely be an explosive day when it does.

To check out what all Universal and the other studios have hitting theaters this year, take a look at our full 2019 movie schedule or take a look at what all is coming in Hobbs & Shaw with CinemaBlend’s full cast list.

Avengers: Endgame Is Adding A Post-Credits Scene, And It's Not What You Think

Avengers: Endgame Is Adding A Post-Credits Scene, And It's Not What You Think

It goes without saying, but SPOILERS for Avengers: Endgame are ahead!

If you’ve already seen Avengers: Endgame in theaters, you know that unlike every Marvel Cinematic Universe movie before it, it does not have a mid/post-credits scene attached. Instead, the noise of a hammer hitting iron is played, reminding audiences of when Tony Stark escaped that cave all those years ago in Iron Man. However, for its third weekend in theaters, Endgame tacking on extra footage to play after the credits, and while it’s not a scene in the conventional sense, it does show what’s to come.

At the beginning of the week, the second Spider-Man: Far From Home trailer was released, and unlike the teaser, it was packed with Avengers: Endgame spoilers. Now Deadline is reporting that folks who see Endgame this weekend will see a pre-film message from Peter Parker himself, Tom Holland, telling moviegoers to stick around after the credits to watch the latest Far From Home trailer.

It’s not often that you see a movie trailer tagged onto a movie after it’s finished playing. However, it does remind me how back when The Amazing Spider-Man 2 came out, a teaser scene from X-Men: Days of Future Past was shown due to a deal between director Marc Webb and 20th Century Fox. This is a more synergetic move given that Marvel Studios and Sony have partnered up for Spider-Man’s MCU exploits, and it makes even more sense to tack the trailer onto Avengers: Endgame given that while that movie was the last installment of the Infinity Saga, Spider-Man: Far From Home is the last movie of Phase 3.

The latest Spider-Man: Far From Home trailer has been a tremendous success for Sony, as it collected over 135 million views in its first 24 hours online. It was also distinctive for leading with a spoiler warning from Tom Holland, which is ironic given how many sensitive plot details he’s accidentally let slip over the years.

Although Marvel was originally firm on not divulging any specific and juicy details about Avengers: Endgame ahead of time in marketing, starting this week, the studio has opened the proverbial floodgates and gone all in on spoilery content, thus allowing for Spider-Man: Far From Home to address the aftermath of Endgame. Along with Peter Parker getting back into the swing of things after being gone for five years like every other person who was snapped away by Thanos, he’s also mourning the loss of his mentor and father figure, Tony Stark.

However, the biggest revelation in the Spider-Man: Far From Home trailer is that a hole has been torn in reality, and Jake Gyllenhaal’s Quentin Beck, a.k.a. Mysterio, claims to be from a different Earth. Given Mysterio’s penchant for illusions and trickery in the comics, we shouldn’t discount the possibility that he’s lying, but given how Avengers: Endgame explored different timelines, the MCU could indeed be setting the stage for a proper multiverse to be brought into the equation.

Avengers: Endgame isn’t leaving theaters anytime soon, and Spider-Man: Far From Home swings into theaters on July 2, so keep checking back with CinemaBlend for more coverage about the sequel. For now, you can learn what else is coming down the MCU pipeline with our comprehensive guide.

National Treasure 3 Could Still Happen After All

National Treasure 3 Could Still Happen After All

While not as long in purgatory as Bill & Ted 3, nor as troubled as The Crow reboot, one movie that has been consistently hoped for but has never arrived is National Treasure 3. Every year since 2007’s National Treasure: Book of Secrets has seemingly made it less and less likely we’d get a third film. However, National Treasure 3 could still happen after all, as Disney CEO and Chairman Bob Iger explained at the Walt Disney Company’s 2019 Annual Meeting of Shareholders:

I know that Jerry Bruckheimer who produced National Treasure 1 And 2 would like to make a third movie and I know that discussions about that film have gone on, probably since 2016, with our studio, but I know that they have not greenlit such a film. They have talked about a number of different possibilities both on the creative side and from a timing perspective and I just don't have anything to announce, though I did speak with Mr. Bruckheimer not long ago about it and I know his passion for that franchise remains pretty strong. We love those first two films too, but we're not quite there yet.

While far from as exciting and encouraging as a release date, these comments are still good to hear. According to Bob Iger, there isn’t anything to announce on the National Treasure 3 front, but the film isn’t necessarily dead either. The Disney head honcho could have said that they are no longer interested or any number of things that would douse hopes for National Treasure 3, but he left the door open so it seems like it still exists as a possibility.

Producer Jerry Bruckheimer is still very interested in pursuing the third film and he has been doing just that, even speaking to Bob Iger about it recently. But it sounds like the development has been slow going. Discussions have been happening for several years to bring the third chapter in the adventure series to life, but they have yet to reach a place where the film is good to go and gets a green light.

It seems like they are still working out the creative side, as far as what the movie will be. Franchise star Nicolas Cage has previously spoken about the challenging nature of the scripts for these films. There also seems to be an issue of timing as Bob Iger says, so when Disney could fit it into its budget as well as on a release calendar may also be a point of discussion.

It should be noted that Bob Iger said something similar to his above comments at a shareholders meeting years ago, so it’s unclear how much progress there has really been. But he still hasn’t nixed the idea entirely, so there’s still a chance!

The franchise that started with National Treasure in 2004 was last seen in 2007 with National Treasure: Book of Secrets. And although things have been said over the years that have kept the hope alive for National Treasure 3, it has long seemed like the third film was dead and buried and likely mummified in a historically significant tomb. And that may eventually be the case, but not for sure and not yet.

The franchise’s director Jon Turteltaub recently spoke about why Disney isn’t making National Treasure 3, saying that it is because Disney is prioritizing other franchises that will make more, ignoring the internet’s demand for the threequel. And he’s certainly right that Disney is very heavily focused on its blockbuster brands at the moment. Maybe, given what Bob Iger said about the timing of the film and the Mouse House’s crowded theatrical release slate, there is an opportunity to have National Treasure 3 be a Disney+ movie.

We’ll keep you updated on National Treasure 3 and be sure to check out our 2019 Release Schedule for movies headed your way this year.