Entertainment

'Fantastic Beasts' Has A Director

by Alanna Bennett

We now officially know who's directing the the next movie in the Harry Potter franchise — and it's the same dude who directed the last four movies in the Harry Potter franchise. Fantastic Beasts has a director, and it's David Yates. A grand tradition has appeared, it would seem.

The continuation of the Harry Potter universe through Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them — and, later, Quidditch Through the Ages — was announced almost a year ago, but now that the director's decision's been announced the rest of the film can finally move forward. Yates, who's directed every Harry Potter film since Order Of the Phoenix, wasn't on my personal wishlist of directors for the project, but perhaps his involvement will mean the inclusion of a few of my suggested actors for the movie. If Yates finds a way to make Tom Hiddleston take a major part in this movie I'll retroactively put him at the top of my wishlist — I might even pretend I wasn't gunning for Alfonso Cuaron or Guillermo Del Toro quite as hard as I was.

As a diehard Harry Potter fan, I find it hard to be too bummed that the man behind Deathly Hallows, Part 1 — my personal favorite of the films, alongside Cuaron's Prisoner Of Azkaban — is helming Fantastic Beasts. That sequence with the "Tale Of The Three Brothers" in Deathly Hallows was beautifully handled, after all, so he's shown his ability to handleRowling lore that stretches beyond the confines of Hogwarts.

As Hypable's Joshua Nealey notes, Yates is currently filming a reboot of Tarzan — that'll go until November, at which point we might be able to expect some actual casting news. We need a Newt Scamander, after all.