This Rotten Week: Predicting John Wick: Chapter 3, A Dog’s Journey, And The Sun Is Also A Star Reviews

This Rotten Week: Predicting John Wick: Chapter 3, A Dog’s Journey, And The Sun Is Also A Star Reviews

This week we've got the ultimate contract killer coming back for more killing, a dog getting reincarnated over and over again, and one night for love in the city. Get ready for John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum, A Dog’s Journey, and The Sun Is Also A Star.

Just remember, I'm not reviewing these movies, but rather predicting where they'll end up on the Tomatometer. Let's take a look at This Rotten Week has to offer.

The original John Wick (87%) was something of a critical surprise considering the violent nature of the the revenge/vigilante film, but it sure was a fun watch and critics saw it as such. The filmmakers then followed up with an even more successful sequel, John Wick Chapter 2 (89%), which performed slightly better using basically the same premise and just ramping up the action that much more. Now we're getting ready for the third installment, John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum, and if it continues getting the solid write-ups it's already received, it will finish as the best of the group so far

In the new film, which picks up moments after the end of the last movie, John Wick (Keanu Reeves) has to withstand an onslaught of those out to kill him as a 14 million global contract is taken out on him. These movies have found success mixing insane action and fantastic world-building, and it seems like that's continuing in John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum. Chad Stahelski is back directing this third installment, and early sentiments are overwhelmingly positive with the Tomatometer sitting at 98% through 40 reviews. I suspect the score will dip a bit as we get closer to release, but ultimately be considered one of the best-reviewed action films of 2019.

In A Dog’s Purpose, audiences were introduced to Bailey, a young pup who lives a multitude of lives, regularly reincarnated with the purpose of trying to help the boy who first owned him, Ethan. It was a nice enough story about pets, love and friendship, though it wasn't exactly beloved by critics (landing a 34% score on Rotten Tomatoes). The sequel, A Dog’s Journey, is about, well, the exact same thing. Replace Ethan with his granddaughter CJ and just about everything else looks identical.

A Dog’s Purpose was a massive commercial success, earning more than $200 million at the box office, so it’s no wonder we’re getting another chapter of this particular story. Considering the vanilla nature of the narrative, it’s tough to imagine critics panning it all that hard, but like its predecessor, there’s likely a ceiling on just how high it can reach on the Tomatometer. I suspect A Dog’s Journey winds up with a score better than its predecessor, but still not quite "Fresh."

In The Sun Is Also A Star, adapted from the book by author Nicola Yoon, audiences are introduced to Natasha, whose family is about to be deported. Things seem quite grim right up until she meets Daniel, who’ll convince her they are destined to fall in love in the course of just a few hours. From the trailer it seems to be jam-packed with dialogue you'd never hear in real life, but I imagine the teenage crowd will eat up with a spoon.

It doesn't look downright terrible (I'd go as far as to say it will definitely appeal to its target demographic) but I can’t imagine it winds up being a movie for everyone. And unfortunately for The Sun Is Also A Star, there aren't a ton of teens on Rotten Tomatoes having their voices count towards the score. It’s directed by Ry Russo-Young, who previously directed Before I Fall (63%), but I don’t think it will finish as high as that one. It just looks very cookie cutter and unrealistic.

I had merely a so-so week last time around with my predictions resulting in two hits and two misses. Detective Pikachu (Predicted: 67% Actual: 63%) finished well within range, and still I thought it was something of a surprise that it scored this high on the Tomatometer. But the filmmakers clearly had fun with the concept of Pokemon living in the real world, giving Pikachu something of a snarky demeanor to boot. It didn’t finish off the charts, but this is more than an acceptable score, and the first ever "Fresh" video game movie.

Tolkien (Predicted: 44% Actual: 49%) was the other film I was on target with, and I was helped by having some early reviews in at the time of publication. Based solely on the trailer I would have likely gone a little higher on the score, as I thought it looked solid, but critics were apparently not impressed with it, and deemed it bland. It sure seems like this was a missed opportunity considering the author’s legacy and the incredible real world adventures that inspired the fantasy series by which all others are judged.

Meanwhile, Poms (Predicted: 51% Actual: 29%) was a bad miss. I wish I had stopped halfway through the trailer because then my prediction would have been more accurate. But the sentimental aspect of the main character dealing with a terminal illness definitely swayed me on where it would land with critics. It turns out that part of the story wasn't appreciated, and this was apparently a stinker.

Finally, The Hustle (Predicted: 41% Actual: 16%) was a really bad miss. Critics hated this thing, and it isn’t extremely hard to see why. My prediction was that the characters would be completely irredeemable, but the laughs would help people appreciate the movie on the whole. Unfortunately I was much more correct about the first half than the second.

Next time we’ve got Aladdin, Booksmart and Brightburn. It’s gonna be a Rotten Week!

Horror Legend John Carpenter Is Ready To Step Back Into The Director’s Chair

Horror Legend John Carpenter Is Ready To Step Back Into The Director’s Chair

Though it’s been almost a decade since John Carpenter has directed a feature film, with 2010's The Woods holding that distinction, the prospect of returning to the chair has always been on his mind. And while he’s certainly produced and guided some projects here and there, he hasn’t landed into a directing gig that’s given him the chance just yet.

However, when talking to the press during his attendance at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, one of the horror genre’s masters said some things that sound like that could change at any moment. Specifically, John Carpenter had the following remarks to make:

I don’t have one scheduled but I’m working on things. I made a lot of movies and I got burned out and I had to stop for a while. I have to have a life. Circumstance would have to be correct for me to do it again. I’d love to make a little horror film… that would be great. Or a big adventure film. It would be a project that I like that’s budgeted correctly. Nowadays they make these young directors do movies for $2 million when the movie is written for $10 million. So you have to squeeze it all in there and I don’t want to do that anymore.

So while John Carpenter isn’t signed up for any specific project just yet, it looks like he has some irons in the fire that could poke out a monster or two, if need be. Though should he return to the directing game, it sounds like it’s all or nothing for the man who brought us such visionary hits as Halloween, The Thing and They Live.

Without a question, John Carpenter isn’t interested in revisiting his old stuff, so a remake job is out of the question. And looking at his comments about budgeting above, he’s going to need a figure that properly reflects how he sees the movie on the page coming to life. Meaning, as he mentioned above in his discussion with Collider, if it’s a $10 million movie, he’s going to need that full $10 million to make it.

In his downtime from feature directing, Carpenter hasn’t been a slouch. With a strong video game habit and a thriving musical career, the famed horror legend has been putting his art into the universe through other methods. And the world of film has been one of them, albeit in the way of a music video he filmed for his theme to Christine, which he dropped back in 2017. You can watch, and listen, to that particularly awesome track unfold below:

Considering his input on last year’s Halloween sequel led that film to a $254 million take internationally, on a $10 million production budget for director David Gordon Green, it’s fair to say that the John Carpenter touch is far from gone. His sabbatical has done him well, and under the right conditions, you could have a Carpenter-directed film yourself in the near future. So get to it, Hollywood!

Halloween (2018) is currently available on most streaming platforms for rent, with most of the original canon, including Carpenter’s classic original film, being available on Shudder.

Brightburn Ending: What Happened, And What It Means

Brightburn Ending: What Happened, And What It Means

Warning: Spoilers for Brightburn are in play. If you haven’t seen the film yet, turn around before it’s too late, and come back once you’ve caught up.

When writers Brian and Mark Gunn’s Brightburn was first announced, it looked like a thrilling cross between Superman The Movie and The Omen was about to head our way. And sure enough, the David Yarovesky directed film played out just as we’d hoped it would, right down to its uber-bleak ending.

But there’s more to Brightburn’s finale than just what happened, as a mid-credits sequence opens the door to a wider world of havoc and mayhem. So we’d like to break down Brandon Bryer’s fate at the end of the film, and ask some questions about what it means and what the future could hold for Brightburn.

If you haven’t seen the film yet, this is your last chance to turn away before spoilers are in full effect. But if you’re ready to jump into the Brightburn fray, let’s start with talking about what the ending entailed.

The Ending To Brightburn

After an increasingly disturbing pattern of behavior, Brandon Bryer (Jackson A. Dunn) makes his full turn into becoming the superpowered villain he was seemingly always meant to be. Using his powers to intimidate and murder those who would try to make him answer for his deeds, Brandon eventually kills his parents.

He kill his father Kyle (David Denman) on what’s supposed to be a camping trip, but was secretly Kyle’s attempt at killing his son. Kyle tries to kill Brandon with a hunting rifle, but Brandon’s invulnerability sees him safe and sound. The son kills the father with his heat vision, and returns home just as his mother, Tori (Elizabeth Banks) accepts the fact that her adopted alien son is, in fact, evil.

Brandon returns home after Tori makes a call to Kyle, siding with him on the issue of their son’s villainy, which leads to Brandon’s greatest outburst. He destroys the family home, kills a couple of police officers, and eventually drops his mother from the sky after she tries to stab him with the only thing that could hurt him: the glass from the spaceship he crashed in.

Though he told his mother he wanted to do good, that’s no longer an option at the end of Brightburn, as we see Brandon Bryer wreck a commercial airliner to cover his tracks, and allow himself to go on to commit unspeakable acts. As the world starts to learn of his misdeeds, and his infamous reputation as a menacing force grows, he’s branded with a new name: Brightburn.

Could Brightburn Ever Become A Force For Good?

With Brandon becoming the all punishing villain at the heart of Brightburn’s super-powered universe, there’s still a question of whether he could become a force for good. As a young child, he’s still kind of in that phase where he doesn’t want anyone to tell him what to do, and seeing as he has the ability to use Superman-like powers with a moral code similar to Damien from The Omen, it’s a question that could pan out either way.

On one hand, Brandon could find himself mentored by someone down the road who could keep him in check. Maybe someone else out there will give him the patience and time that it needs to reform a child of his temperament, and humanity could be spared.

Then again, even Tori, his own mother, eventually turned to trying to kill her baby boy. So if your own mother tries to take you out, your position on your adopted species might be a little less than optimal.

It could be hard, but there’s always a slim possibility that Brandon/Brightburn could run into someone else that would change his worldview; but it all depends on how long he holds onto his superiority complex, and how long it’s allowed to grow unchecked by parental or societal figures.

Is There Really A Team Of Super Powered Villains/Heroes In The Brightburn Universe?

During the mid-credits sequence that sees Brightburn’s world turned upside-down by his heel turn, there’s a familiar face spouting conspiracy theories on the internet. He’s credited as a character known as “The Big T,” as played by Gunn family friend Michael Rooker. And in what looks like a rant in full-on meltdown mode, The Big T theorizes that Brandon might not be the only super in the Brightburn universe.

We see a quick glimpse of six supposedly super-powered menaces, and The Big T warns the audience that if they aren’t quickly dealt with, the world could be overtaken by them. While this feels like a natural setup for another entry in the Brightburn universe, there are two things that make this feel like this small moment is an extra bit of seasoning for this mid-credit roll.

First, one of the heroes in the six figure lineup happens to be Rainn Wilson’s Frank Darbo/Crimson Bolt from director James Gunn’s movie Super. While that movie set up its own problems for its central hero, having actual super powers and/or invulnerability was never in the cards. And seeing as he kind of owns the diner in the Brightburn universe, we’re not so sure he’s using that location as a hero base of sorts.

But the second, and more doubtful, proposition is the fact that Michael Rooker’s Big T comes off as an Alex Jones/InfoWars type personality, who really likes a conspiracy theory, but doesn’t provide a lot of evidence to support it. This isn’t a wholesale write-off of there being more supers in Brandon Bryer’s world, but until we see hard proof, we’re going to say that there’s no superteam awaiting the future of Brightburn. But it’d be kind of cool if there eventually was.

Where A Potential Brightburn Series Could Go From Here

There are several distinct paths that the Brightburn series could take from this point. The first of which is a possible super-villain team lead by Brandon Bryer. With Jackson A. Dunn’s ultimate bad seed being a creature of unknown planetary origin, there’s always a possibility that more like him are on this planet, waiting for a leader.

Of course, if Brian and Mark Gunn really wanted to go full Omen with their potential scripts for Brightburn sequels, we’d see Brandon wrestle with the quandary of being good versus being bad, ultimately siding fully and firmly on the villain’s side of the fence and trying to seize ultimate power. Which honestly, isn’t a bad option at all, because it’d be compelling to see a supervillain’s rise to power.

Ultimately, there’s no real limit to where Brightburn could go. The real question is which path the audience, and the creative team behind any hypothetical sequel, would find more rewarding. In which case, continuing the hybridization of The Omen and Superman franchises might be the best option; with the possibility of Brandon being adopted by a Lex Luthor-esque figure offering a hell of a sequel premise.

Seeing another Brightburn film would be a real reward, as this homage to two of director Richard Donner’s best films is a thrilling surprise at the summer box office. But it can’t remain a surprise if it wants to ever see another installment. Audiences attendance will be the key to whether or not Brandon Bryer’s story continues, and with Brightburn currently in theaters, we’ll have to wait to see if this evil is vanquished into cinematic obscurity, or allowed to flourish into something more menacing.

Why Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Designed An Entirely New Planet

Why Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Designed An Entirely New Planet

The Star Wars universe is a vast place that has created numerous planets over the years. From the desert of Tatooine to the forest moon of Endor, we all have different places that we love to visit in the films. When Disney began to actually create a Star Wars location for the new land dedicated to Star Wars at Disneyland and Walt Disney World, the team could have decided to build one of these iconic locations, so that fans could actually visit a place in the galaxy, far, far away that they'd always wanted to see. However, in the end, they decided to instead create someplace new.

Over this past weekend at Star Wars Celebration, several of the people who have helped bring Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge to life, spoke about the process, and while they apparently did consider recreating known locations in the Star Wars universe, in the end, the team realized that the new land needed to be new place in order to be the home to new stories, not the ones we'd seen before. As Chris Beatty, the Executive Creative Director of Walt Disney Imagineering explained, it had to be a new place because it had to be a different story...

That was important, as we said when we started designing Black Spire Outpost, it wasn’t about a single person. It wasn’t about Luke or Anakin’s journey. It was about your journey. And that was, I think, the turning point in design for us, when we said ‘you know what? It’s really about you. You are that rogue adventurer scoundrel, that person on the edge of wild space. That was the moment, I remember sitting at the table when we said, ‘you know what, this is it. This is the switch that we needed to flip to really start to think about crafting a place we’ve never been before.

While many of us would love to find ourselves inside a Star Wars movie, most of would probably want to be the star of that movie. The feeling from Lucasfilm and Disney Parks was, that if they simply created a place we'd seen before, it would feel like we were on the outside looking in at somebody else's story, and they wanted Galaxy's Edge to be our story.

As Lucasfilm VP Doug Chiang put it, other locations in the Star Wars universe were specifically designed in order to reflect particular characters, so while we'd all love to visit the Mos Eisley cantina ourselves, if we did, we'd be telling Luke Skywalker's story. According to Chiang...

When we were trying to figure out what the land should be we started to explore all the places we could take our guests. LIke Tatooine, or maybe even Mustafar. When you think about it, those places are a reflection of the characters that they represent. For example, when you think about Tatooine in A New Hope, Luke is a moisture farmer, he’s a simple person and he wants to escape this mundane life. He has a longing for adventure. So the bleak desert landscape reflects this emptiness. And so, when we approached our designs for the environments, we really want to design the environments with purpose.

Nobody wants guests to feel emptiness when visiting Walt Disney World, so a bleak desert location doesn't fit with the design goals. Black Spire Outpost is a location at the edge of the galaxy. It doesn't get visited as much as it once did, which means that it's a place where all sorts of people who don't want to be noticed might end up. Thus the variety of people who wander into the land (you and me) feel normal. Both the Resistance and the First Order have taken residence on the planet, which means guests will have the ability to join whichever side they want.

Of course, while the team may have gone all in creating a new location in the Star Wars universe, it doesn't mean they were entirely sure they had made the right call. Chris Beaty admits that taking on the responsibility of creating an entirely new land was a little scary...

It was a little scary for us at the same time because we know, as fans, we want to visit those classic places, but at the same time we wanted to build a place that, the new characters, the new stories that come to life, you could go and have those moments with them in a land that was timeless.

Of course, the other thing that creating a whole new world allows Disney to do is have the freedom to create whatever they need for the land. If we were walking on to Tatooine or Coruscant, we'd have an expectation of what we were going to see that would potentially limit the creativity that could be exercised by the design team.

Of course, just because a new world was created for Galaxy's Edge doesn't mean that Batuu is going to feel in any way separated from the rest of the Star Wars universe. Black Spire Outpost on Batuu has been referenced in films like Solo: A Star Wars Story and has also been an important part of several books that have been written in recent months. For fans, Batuu will eventually be as much a part of the Star Wars universe as Mustafar.

As excited as I am for a new Star Wars movie, I might actually be more excited for the moment I actually step onto an alien world in the Star Wars universe. Everything from the environment to the food to the merchandise is designed to make you feel like you're actually part of the galaxy far, far, away. As a Disneyland fan, I can't wait to check out the next level attractions that have been designed, but as a Star Wars fan there's so much more going on. Getting a drink in Oga's Cantina is going to be as much an experience as flying the Millennium Falcon.

We'll all get to experience what's in store for us at Black Spire Outpost when Star Wars :Galaxy's Edge opens at Disneyland May 31 and Walt Disney World August 29.

What's Happening With Jason Statham's The Meg 2?

What's Happening With Jason Statham's The Meg 2?

One of 2018’s most successful movies was the Jason Statham giant shark movie The Meg. The film made over $500 million worldwide, making a sequel a no brainer, but we haven’t heard much about where The Meg 2 stands since then, other than the fact that it’s in the works. Well, at the press junket for Pet Sematary in Austin, CinemaBlend's own Sean O'Connell asked producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura for some insight about what’s happening with The Meg 2. He responded:

We’re working on a script. Yeah. So you never know until you get a good script. … I was very thankful that the audience got that we were just trying to have fun, [and] not take ourselves seriously at all.

When we first heard that The Meg 2 was actually happening, it was said that the sequel was in the very early stages and while it is still early and we are a ways off from a release date, it sounds like there is work being done. As Lorenzo di Bonaventura told Sean, they are currently working on a script for the film and seemingly taking their time to get that right before moving forward.

Lorenzo di Bonaventura did seem to hedge things a bit with “you never know,” seemingly not wanting to commit to anything firm on The Meg 2 until there is a script. There doesn’t seem to be a major rush and the focus at the moment is on getting that script and having it be good before the sequel moves to the next stage of development. But, it's encouraging to hear that the script is the primary driver of what happens next.

The other thing that Lorenzo di Bonaventura expressed to Sean was gratitude about the first film’s success and that the audience last summer really embraced The Meg and what it was going for. I think when the film was announced and we began to see trailers for it, the tone wasn’t entirely clear.

Some initially thought that The Meg was going to take a more serious approach than it ultimately did, but audiences, especially those internationally, really embraced it and showed up to have fun with a ridiculous giant shark movie that didn’t take itself seriously. Lorenzo di Bonaventura seems happy that the quintessential summer movie connected in that way.

What’s interesting about this is that although the silly approach worked at the box office, it didn’t work for everyone. Some people would have preferred the bloodier, R-rated cut that director Jon Turteltaub teased. One person who seemed to lament the gorier, adult film The Meg could have been is actually the film’s star Jason Statham.

As far as where a sequel could go, The Meg is based on a series of novels by Steve Alten and that could provide a pathway forward for the franchise. The sequels up the ante even more, introducing more creatures long though extinct that could delight summer audiences. Director Jon Turteltaub just wants to make sure that the franchise doesn’t turn into one with successively worse sequels where everything gets bigger, not better.

We’ll keep you updated on the latest on The Meg 2 as we hear it. In the meantime, check out our 2019 Release Schedule to see all the biggest movies looking to make a splash this year.

Avengers: Endgame's Pre-Sales Broke Another Record

Avengers: Endgame's Pre-Sales Broke Another Record

There are only a few weeks remaining until the release of Avengers: Endgame and it's fair to say that anticipation is well past the boiling point. People are absolutely hungry for this movie, from devouring scraps of new footage to concocting crazy fan theories. For more proof, fans damn near broke the internet when tickets went on sale earlier this month, which led to some record breaking. Now Endgame has broken even more records, as Atom Tickets reports that it's the best pre-sales title of all time.

It felt like just about every Marvel fan and their grandmother was trying to buy tickets to Avengers: Endgame when they finally went on sale earlier this month. Multiple theater chains and ticket buying services such as Fandango and Atom reported crashes from the sheer number of people trying to buy Avengers: Endgame tickets. It certainly made for an interesting (and stressful) experience, but millions of people were clearly still able to buy tickets.

So many people were able to buy tickets, in fact, that Endgame broke Fandango's first-day ticket pre-sales record in just six hours, passing by Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and Avengers: Infinity War. The blockbuster performed similarly on Atom Tickets, becoming the best selling one-day pre-sales title.

Now Atom is reporting that Endgame has broken another record for the ticketing service. It's now the company's best selling movie of all-time. It only took Endgame 10 days to do this, which is itself a record! Aquaman was the previous record holder and it took the film 32 days to do it.

The Marvel blockbuster has broken several other records on Atom as well. Within the first hour of tickets going on sale, Endgame sold three times the amount of tickets Avengers: Infinity War sold last year. Additionally, in just one day, it sold five times the amount of the previous record set by Aquaman. Finally, after one week on Atom, it sold nearly twice as many tickets as the next four record holders combined, which includes Aquaman, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Avengers: Infinity War and Captain Marvel.

Endgame is playing for keeps! It's not a surprise that people will be turning out in droves to see Endgame opening weekend, but the number looks to be staggering. The film is tracking to potentially open domestically in the range of $230 million and $283 million, with worldwide projections as high as $800 million. Tracking can change the closer we get to the release date, but that's still an insane amount of money.

Hopefully, you got your tickets with little trouble and are all set to see Avengers: Endgame when it arrives in theaters on April 26.

Fantastic Beasts 3: What We Know So Far

Fantastic Beasts 3: What We Know So Far

Merlin's beard, we have so many questions about the third Fantastic Beasts movie! For one, what will it be called? It has a title, and the castmembers appear to know it, but it has yet to be announced. So much of Fantastic Beasts 3 is still as mysterious as Credence's backstory, but we do have enough information to get started. So, here's what we know at this point about the movie that will follow Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, and precede the planned sequels Fantastic Beasts 4 and Fantastic Beasts 5. Keep your eye on this guide, because we'll update it with new intel as the owls fly in.

What Is The Fantastic Beasts 3 Release Date?

Warner Bros. finally issued an official release date in late April 2019: Fantastic Beasts 3 is currently scheduled to open November 12, 2021. Fantastic Beasts 3 was initially hoped / expected to release on November 20, 2020, then WB gave Dune that release date. Production on Fantastic Beasts 3 was initially delayed from starting to film this July, 2019, to starting instead in late fall 2019. Filming was delayed yet again to start in the spring of 2020 to match the new November 2021 release date.

Dan Fogler (Jacob Kowalski) said filming was delayed because the third movie is "bigger than the first two combined." The "gigantic" movie needed more time to prep, and they didn't want to rush anything. Also, screenwriter J.K. Rowling is said to be re-working the script right now (spring 2019), to try and make the third movie better than Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald after the relative disappointment of the second movie with fans, critics, and the box office.

What Will Fantastic Beasts 3 Be Rated?

The MPAA won't reveal Fantastic Beasts 3's official rating until well after filming, closer to the release date. But it's almost certainly going to be PG-13. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was rated PG-13 for "some fantasy action violence." Crimes of Grindelwald was rated PG-13 for "some sequences of fantasy action." Expect something similar for Fantastic Beasts 3.

What Will Fantastic Beasts 3 Be About?

Ah, the biggest question! When a fan asked J.K. Rowling to describe the third film in three words, she replied, "Answers are given." What answers, though? Since this is the third of five planned movies, we know not everything will be wrapped up in Fantastic Beasts 3. However, we know some things. The first film was set in 1926 in New York, with the second film set in 1927, mostly in Paris. Dan Fogler already revealed they'd be going to Brazil for part of the third movie, but he also said it would be bigger than the previous two movies combined. In late 2018, J.K. Rowling made her Twitter header a photo of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in the 1930s, in what was seen as a big clue on what's to come. She also hinted at seeing more of a professor from Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the North American school of magic, so we have to include that U.S. school as a potential location.

If the movie is set in the 1930s, that would be a bit of a time jump, but it would still leave a long way before the planned ending for the franchise in 1945. That's the end of World War II but also the year of Gellert Grindelwald and Albus Dumbledore's big duel. Speaking of world wars, Grindelwald ended the second movie gathering followers to his cause, partly by using the fear of world war if they kept in the current muggle-led direction. Queenie and Credence joined Grindelwald's cause, for their own reasons. Meanwhile, one of Newt Scamander's Niffler friends stole the blood vial sealing the blood pact between Dumbledore and Grindelwald.

The next film doesn't have a synopsis at this point, but it may follow the team fighting Grindelwald's followers around the world while they search for a way to break the blood pact. That way Dumbledore can fight Grindelwald (which apparently takes a while since they don't duel until 1945). Presumably, there will also be more fantastic beasts in the third movie. And, at some point, Nagini is set to become one of them.

Who Is Directing Fantastic Beasts 3?

David Yates appears to be continuing with the franchise, potentially to the end. He started in J.K. Rowling's magical world with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and continued with Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and both Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows movies. He returned to direct the first two Potter prequel movies in the Fantastic Beasts series, and it looks like he's at least signed up for the third movie. Two years ago, longtime producer David Heyman told CinemaBlend he'd like to see David Yates continue to direct all five films. But it sounded like it was partly up to Yates himself, and also dependent on how things played out. So, there's still a glimmer of hope for my dream that Oscar winner Alfonso Cuarón will return to the Harry Potter universe to direct one of the final Fantastic Beasts movies. It's just not gonna be this one.

Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne)

The Fantastic Beasts series centers around Newt Scamander, and that is likely to continue. Newt was trying to stay neutral but he ended the second movie by telling his brother Theseus that he had firmly chosen his side -- with him and Auror Tina, against Grindelwald. Newt seems to be Albus Dumbledore's #1 agent / puppet. In typical Dumbledore fashion, he only doles out little bits of information at a time. The movie ended with Newt presenting Dumbledore with the blood vial a Niffler stole from Grindelwald. So, now they can consider how to destroy it and let Dumbledore fight Grindelwald. Newt has a long history in the Harry Potter world that you can catch up on before the third movie arrives.

Gellert Grindelwald (Johnny Depp)

Crimes of Grindelwald started with Johnny Depp's character escaping prison custody and ended with him holding a rally for his followers. He preached for an end to the statute of secrecy protecting muggles from the truth about wizards. He used images of World War II to justify his plans for domination, and had his followers go spread the world. His rally was also attended by Aurors, but he escaped them once again. First, he created a line with blue flame, with his supporters on one side and enemies on the other. Queenie and Credence joined Grindelwald and left with him to his castle in Nurmengard in Austria. That's where Grindelwald dropped the shocker on Credence that he was actually Albus Dumbledore's long-lost brother, Aurelius. Do we believe that? You have to consider the source. Grindelwald appears to want to use Credence to defeat Dumbledore, since he can't face his old more-than-friends buddy himself.

Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law)

Albus Dumbledore made his debut in the second movie and had a relatively small role. That role is expected to get bigger as we approach the big duel between Dumbledore and his former great love, Grindelwald. The second movie ended with Dumbledore saying "maybe" when Newt asked if the blood pact with Grindelwald could be broken. But, it must be broken at some point in the next couple of movies.

In a deleted scene from Crimes of Grindelwald, Newt openly asked Dumbledore why he sent him to New York for the events of the first movie. Dumbledore answered that he knew Grindelwald would try to catch Credence. Grindelwald had had a vision years ago that an Obscurial killed the man he fears above all others, presumably Dumbledore. So, Dumbledore wanted to "deprive Grindelwald of his weapon," not by killing Credence, but by saving him. Unfortunately, that did not work. And now we have the news, according to Grindelwald, that Credence is actually the younger brother of Albus and Aberforth. Is it true? If so, does Dumbledore know? It would be classic Dumbledore to have information that he chose not to share with others, so we'll have to see.

Credence Barebone (Ezra Miller)

A fragment of Credence's Obscurus survived Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, as a sign that his story was not done. In the second film, he teamed up with Nagini in a search for his own history. Who was he? Through Leta Lestrange, he learned that he was (probably? definitely?) the baby who was swapped at the last moment before a shipwreck took the life of her real half-brother. Later, Grindelwald told Credence he was actually Aurelius Dumbledore. Grindelwald could've been lying, or just wrong, but there was a phoenix that emerged, which is said to be a tie to the Dumbledore family. So did Percival Dumbledore have a child while in prison, the half-brother of Albus, Aberforth, and Ariana? Ariana was said to likely be an Obscurial like Credence. The second film ended with Credence casting a very powerful spell with his wand while at the Grindelwald HQ in Nurmengard. Maybe the "answers" J.K. Rowling promised will be connected to Credence.

Queenie Goldstein (Alison Sudol)

Many fans left Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald frustrated with Queenie for deciding to side with Grindelwald. But sweet Queenie started the movie by enchanting Jacob to do what she wanted, to come with her to Europe so they could get married and avoid the muggle / wizard marriage ban in the U.S. So, she's already no stranger to controlling muggles, even if it's coming from good intentions. When Newt lifted the enchantment, Jacob was understandably upset. Queenie left to find her sister in Paris and, while there, she became distraught and was comforted by Grindelwald's followers. He made an argument that she'd be joining him for love, to change the laws that keep wizards separate from muggles.

Actress Alison Sudol defended Queenie's choice by saying her character wasn't turning evil, she was trying to find someone who would give her an option, a cause she could believe in to create a better world. She doesn't know what's actually going to happen, even if Harry Potter fans do. The end of the film showed her advising Grindelwald to be gentle with Credence, since she could read the young Obscurial's mind and knew he wasn't sure he had picked the right team.

Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler)

Jacob is the lone muggle amid wizards in this series, which puts him in a dangerous position. They tried to erase his memory after the first movie, but he retained a vague memory of his beloved Queenie. In the second movie, he was fully part of the team in Paris and then at Hogwarts in the end. Obviously, he has no magic powers to help in the fight, so it's not clear what his role will be from here -- other than trying to help Tina bring her sister Queenie back from the dark side. Actor Dan Fogler revealed that, in his last scene there at Hogwarts, you can see Jacob looking in another direction from the other characters. (See photo above.) Fogler said, in that moment, Jacob was hoping that Queenie would have a change of heart and come back; if she did, he would be able to forgive her, but we'll have to wait to see what the next film holds for those two.

Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston)

Tina is now a MACUSA Auror, and she spent Crimes of Grindelwald looking for Credence. She also got caught up in a silly love triangle when she believed an inaccurate news report saying Newt was engaged to Leta Lestrange, meaning that we had to deal with that awkwardness between Newt and Tina before it was cleared up. Tina is fully part of the team trying to stop Grindelwald, but her sister Queenie is now on Team Grindelwald, which makes things especially difficult. Never mind whether Tina and Newt or Queenie and Jacob will end up together, how are the sisters going to reunite when they are on opposite sides of this wizard war?

Nagini (Claudia Kim)

Harry Potter fans are very familiar with the character of Nagini as villain Voldemort's sidekick Horcrux snake. It was a shock, then, to learn that Nagini was actually a woman -- a seemingly kind, gentle one -- when she was younger. Nagini is a Maledictus, a girl with a blood curse that will eventually turn her into a beast. This means that at some point we're probably going to see how Nagini turns, permanently, into a snake. Since the series reportedly ends in 1945, will we see how she connects with Voldemort or not quite? And how does she turn to the dark side? Nagini's whole role in Crimes of Grindelwald was as Credence's supportive sidekick -- apparently that's her lot in life. They escaped the circus and then went searching for his history together.

Credence went with Grindelwald because Grindelwald promised him answers on who he really is. Nagini was shown at Hogwarts with Newt, Tina, Jacob, Theseus, Dumbledore, and others fighting against Grindelwald. There's a lot of story that needs to be told to explain how Nagini goes from there to Voldemort's slave snake. Hopefully, they don't sideline Nagini in the next film, since she deserves to do more than just show up and comfort Credence.

Leta Lestrange (Zoe Kravitz)

Apparently there's some confusion about whether Leta Lestrange died in the blue flames toward the end of Crimes of Grindelwald or not. Zoe Kravitz was on co-star Dan Fogler's 4d Xperience podcast (via Hypable) and said it was "kind of a last minute change that she got toasted." Fogler, who plays Jacob, said they have to bring her back somehow. She said it would be cool if they did, but she had no idea what they were going to do. Leta is / was engaged to Newt's brother Theseus, but she has a history with Newt, and seemed to be his first love. She shared her tragic backstory in the second Fantastic Beasts film, including her confession that she switched her brother Corvus Lestrange with another baby during a ship voyage; that other baby was supposedly Credence. Corvus died in the shipwreck, while the other baby survived, and Leta was tortured by guilt. Will she be back in the third film, or is her part in this story complete?

Theseus Scamander (Callum Turner)

Newt's older brother was introduced in the second movie. He's a British Auror, and engaged to Leta Lestrange. But if Leta did die, I guess that engagement is pretty much over. Theseus seemed frustrated with Newt for initially not wanting to take a side in the fight against Grindelwald, with Newt wanting to be neutral. The brothers embraced after the loss of Leta and the devastation in Paris, and Newt told his brother he had chosen his side. It's not clear what role Theseus might have in the third movie, but he's an Auror so he'll be wanting to continue the fight against Grindelwald and his followers.

Nicolas Flamel (Brontis Jodorowsky)

Pretty-much-immortal alchemist Nicolas Flamel had a small role in the Paris-set second movie. His name is familiar to Harry Potter fans from The Sorcerer's Stone. He spent time with Jacob in Crimes of Grindelwald, and joined the fight against Grindelwald's curse on the city toward the end. Flamel didn't have too much of a role in the second movie, but he's a friend of Dumbledore's. And, because he's an alchemist, could he be the one who figures out how to break the blood pact between Dumbledore and Grindelwald? We'll have to wait and see.

Eulalie (Lally) Hicks (Jessica Williams)

Lally Hicks, a professor at Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the U.S., had a blink-and-you-missed-her role in Crimes of Grindelwald. Jessica Williams' character was shown briefly when Nicolas Flamel was flipping through a book after seeing a vision of death and destruction. She told him he had to go and try to help stop it. Before that movie opened, J.K. Rowling had teased on Twitter that "You only see a HINT of Lally in Fantastic Beasts 2. Her true glory is revealed in FB3." We know Lally, an American professor, will have a pretty big role in Fantastic Beasts 3. Doing what? And does that mean we go back to the U.S., to visit the Massachusetts-set Ilvermorny, or will she be joining the team in Brazil or Hogwarts, or wherever else we go? There are no hints on that right now, but it should be fun to find out.

What Happens After Fantastic Beasts 3?

J.K. Rowling surprised fans when she revealed that she was actually planning to write five movies for the Fantastic Beasts series. Producer David Heyman later explained that she began by expecting three films but then, as she dug deeper and started writing the first script, she realized there was a lot more story to tell and didn't think she could fit it all in three movies.

The five-film Fantastic Beasts series is expected to span from 1926 to 1945, with the final movie including the big duel between Grindelwald and Dumbledore. The second movie was set in 1927 but, as shown above, Rowling hinted at the third movie being set at least in part in the 1930s. There has been no confirmation about the third movie's timeline. Will it lead up to the start of World War II, or would that real-world war be left to play out opposite the magical one in the fourth and fifth movies? Time will tell. (Get it? Time? #classic)

The Fantastic Beasts franchise is currently taking a moment to step back and reassess plans for the third movie after the significant drop in box office (and fan / critic reactions) after the second movie. Since J.K. Rowling is said to be reworking her script a bit, it's not clear how much could change. As of now, Fantastic Beasts 3 is set to start production in late fall 2019 for a release date most likely to be in 2021, but we're on standby for official updates. In the meantime, keep up with what's actually opening on the big screen this year with our handy 2019 movie schedule.