Where does the Wizarding World go now?
Is there still magic left in the Harry Potter universe?
Last month, my wife and I took some time away for a belated 10th anniversary trip. We’d long talked about doing a week at Universal Studios in Orlando, and so we flew down for our first week without the kids in about nine years. It was a great trip; I hadn’t been to Universal since 1993, so it was pretty much like going for the first time. I loved hanging out in Springfield with The Simpsons, walking through Jurassic Park and riding the Velocicoaster, and enjoying a week with my wife.
Obviously, the main attraction is the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, which has locations at each park. Here, you can drink Butterbeer, cast spells with your own wand, and go on adventures with Harry and his friends in several immersive roller coasters and rides. It not only helped a struggling Universal Orlando when it was suffering post-9/11, but it has also made it a formidable competitor with the Mouse House down the road.
I knew about the Harry Potter stuff as we prepared to go, but my excitement about those areas was always a bit tempered. I consider myself a moderate Potter fan at best. I read the books at the prodding of a coworker, and enjoyed the world J.K. Rowling created. I’ve seen most of the movies (my wife and I went to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on our second date). But by and large, my wife’s been the bigger fan, and I haven’t had much desire to revisit any of the books or movies. It doesn’t help that I’ve been a bit annoyed at how it’s seemingly the only pop culture material an entire generation turns to for understanding the larger world.
But the Wizarding World of Harry Potter knocked me flat. The sense of immersion is impossible to describe; I’d watched videos of the attractions and areas, and still wasn’t prepared for how perfectly the park creates a feeling of walking into the movies. Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios are both great parks with impressive theming, but the Wizarding World areas are on a completely different level. From the snow-capped hamlet of Hogsmeade to the angular, old-world feel of Diagon Alley (complete with a fire-breathing dragon atop Gringotts Bank), there’s enough to explore in these subsections to make an entire day out of it.
Every corner of every store and restaurant something to draw your attention, whether it’s the areas where you can stop and cast a “spell” with your wand (available for $60 at several shops, naturally), the animatronics in every store window and corner shop, or the nooks and crannies to explore in areas like Knockturn Alley. Plus, the rides are completely next-level. Hagrid’s Magical Motorbike Adventure is a blast of a family coaster, combining elements I’d never experienced before with some really fun special effects. Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey is a crazy, vertigo-inducing spin through Hogwarts that combines screens and practical effects to create possibly the best dark ride I’ve ever been on. And the Escape from Gringotts ride is a roller coaster/screen attraction that has one of the most detailed queues around and a ride system that is a technical marvel. Even the simple function of going between parks via the Hogwarts Express is a can’t-miss experience that uses video and lighting to make it feel like you’re taking the same journey as Harry and his friends. Plus, I can’t express the joy of Butterbeer enough; they sell it cold, frozen and hot. It’s all good, but hot Butterbeer might make you see the face of God.
The amount of fun I had exploring the Wizarding World surprised me, and made me reconsider my relationship to the series. It reminded me how full and immersive a world JK Rowling had created and how much magic there was left to mine from it. By the end of the week, I was taking a quiz to figure out my house (Gryffindor) and my patronus (um…a vole). I even have a recipe to make Butterbeer at home.
I was thinking about that this past week, as the latest film set in the Wizarding World crashed and burned at the box office. Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore opened to a paltry $43 million, the lowest opening of any film in the Harry Potter universe (it’s a continued downturn for the series, which has seen diminishing returns beginning with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them in 2016). While I was mixed positive on the film, I was in the minority; the film has a wretched 47% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s just the latest blow for the franchise, which has weathered a storm of controversy, from creator J.K. Rowling continuing to make insensitive comments toward the trans community, star Johnny Depp being replaced amidst allegations or spousal abuse, and Ezra Miller having his own legal woes. There are apparently two films left to go in the Fantastic Beasts franchise, but is it worth Warner Brothers’ time and money to invest in a series audiences seem to be ambivalent about? What went wrong, and what comes next?
What went wrong?
As for what went wrong, there are two answers. The first is that the Fantastic Beasts films are not good. The first film is a decent enough attempt to recapture the whimsy of the Harry Potter franchise, and it has its moments of fun. Eddie Redmayne, an actor I’m not usually fond of, is an ideal addition to the Wizarding World, and I enjoy his meek, pure-hearted and reluctant hero, Newt Scamander. Dan Fogel is also a blast as Jacob, a muggle drawn into the adventures who comes to love the weird, mystical wizarding world. In its best moments, there’s the hint of a fun stand-alone series following Newt and Jacob as they travel the world to discover new, strange beasts, a Potterverse Indiana Jones, if you will.
But even in that first film, the screenplay struggles to build in and further Harry Potter mythology, anchoring itself to the hinted-at but never fully explored prequel story of Dark Wizard Grindelwald and his attempts to overtake the wizarding community. The future movies would move Newt to the background to bring in franchise-favorites like Dumbledore (Jude Law), replacing the whimsy with angst, on-the-nose political allegory and a sense of dread. The second film is the nadir, a dark and dull slog that is awash in its bloated sense of self-importance. Even Secrets of Dumbledore, which grafts the proceedings onto a fun spy thriller template, gets too bogged down in family conspiracies, thwarted love stories and warnings of despots being celebrated into power (the second film is a dunder-headed WWII allegory, and Dumbledore doesn’t hide its Trump allusions; and while I’m fine with a film taking a swipe at Donald Trump, I also wish it had some fun while doing so). The cast is fine and there are some fun ideas, but the film can’t hold together under the weight of its various subplots, characters and tones.
Not only are the films bad, but I can’t imagine who thought a leaden-faced prequel series was a good way to continue the stories. From Star Wars to The Hobbit, it’s been proven that audiences aren’t interested in getting more backstory to their beloved tales. Not only are the endings already known going in, but most familiar faces are missing, and the films abandon a sense of discovery and wonder to instead spend two or three hours connecting the dots and answering questions no one cared about in the first place.
What’s more, while the characters in the Fantastic Beasts films are perfectly likable, centering the franchise on a group of adults misses the primary appeal of the Potter stories. They were films told for children about children. Many people discovered the books or movies when they were the same age as the characters, and they grew up with them. It helped add to the series’ sense of whimsy and wonder, and rooting the story in the innocence and naivety of childhood allowed it to mature and grow more complex as the characters and audiences aged. Telling the story from adult point of views — particularly when so much of the themes of the Harry Potter movies were focused on learning which adults to trust and when to have a healthy suspicion of authority — removes a key ingredient to the particular magic of that franchise, and now the Wizarding World just feels like any other superhero movie, with wands instead of tights.
So, you have a story audiences aren’t interested in and, to boot, it’s a story that’s badly told. Is it any wonder the money isn’t flowing in, or why Warner Brothers might be wondering whether it’s worth continuing Newt’s story at all?
Where does the Wizarding World go?
Warner Brothers can’t afford to let its one major non-DC franchise expire. The Harry Potter movies brought in billions for the studios, and the popularity of the theme park attractions (with a third Wizarding World set to open at a new Universal Park in Florida in 2025) proves that there’s still interest left in the Potterverse. Kids still read the books and watch the movies, and HBO Max’s recent Harry Potter reunion special proved there’s still an investment.
I don’t think the Fantastic Beasts movies will continue, though. The constant controversies, coupled with dwindling audience interest, make it difficult to make a case for finishing the series on the big screen. A fellow critic of mind suggested that maybe WB still makes the final two movies but sends them straight to HBO Max. That’s a possibility, I suppose, but it feels like that would be a very blatant admission of defeat, and I’m not sure it would gain any more eyeballs once relegated to streaming.
Personally, I don’t need more Potterverse stories. I’m content to revisit the series with my kids and let them stand alone. I’m sure video games and amusement parks will suffice for most people. But Warner Brothers isn’t going to leave one of its biggest money makers on the table. So, there are probably a few options they could pursue.
Secrets of Dumbledore ends things on a note where there’s more story to be told, but the books have filled in enough information that it could also serve as an endpoint. But with HBO Max as a major focus for Warner Bros. Discovery, perhaps they decide to pick the parts that work in the franchises and do their own streaming series, similar to what Disney + is doing with Marvel and Star Wars. Jude Law is a fine Dumbledore, and Mads Mikkelsen is one of the few things that works well in the latest movie. A limited series focused on resolving their story could work, as could a stand alone series focused solely on Newt and his pursuit of whimsical creatures. It’s the combination of the two ideas that bogs down the Fantastic Beasts movie; alone, they would perhaps have time for their respective stories to flourish.
The obvious answer, of course, would be a big-screen continuation of the Potter franchise with an adaptation of the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child stage play, which would bring back Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and the rest as adults. The problem is that the play wasn’t particularly well received, and Radcliffe has been pretty consistent in suggesting that it will be a long time before he dons those round spectacles again. Eventually, I’m sure money will win out and Warner Brothers will be able to convince everyone to return for a cash grab, but it doesn’t sound like it will be soon.
There’s probably merit to an idea of a Hogwarts-set HBO Max series following a new group of students and their magical misadventures, or perhaps down the road just re-adapting the entire books as a series with a new cast. A Harry Potter game show hosted by Helen Mirren aired on cable in November, but didn’t really set the world on fire. While I don’t need another visit to Hogwarts, I would absolutely tune into a series about the making of the Universal areas and attractions, similar to what Disney +’s The Imagineering Story did, but that would require both Warners and Universal playing ball and arguing over whether it goes to HBO Max or Peacock.
Of course, there’s the complication of Rowling’s controversial status and the fact that any Harry Potter ideas require her approval. And she doesn’t seem too keen on continuing the stories just for IP continuation. So, we’ll see. This is a franchise with a huge audience base, but perhaps the best answer is to let it lie dormant for a decade or so and age into a classic, ala the Star Wars saga, before making any more returns to Hogwarts.
What do you think? Where should the Wizarding World go next, or should everyone just hang up their wand?
In Theaters
It was a beautiful weekend in the Detroit area, so my hope is too many people didn’t venture out to the movies. But if you have some time this week and are looking for a diversion with the kids as the weather cools down, you could do worse than The Bad Guys. It’s a slick, fun little heist thriller with a good cast. You can read my review over at CinemaNerdz.