'Fantastic Beasts 3' Finds Its Way To Brazil With A Spring 2020 Production Start

Warner Bros.' globe-trotting Harry Potter prequel series has found its next destination: Brazil. The yet-untitled Fantastic Beasts 3 is finding its way to the South American country, where it will begin filming next year. Warner Bros. has officially greenlit the film with filming set to begin in spring 2020.

Deadline broke the news that Warner Bros. had greenlit Fantastic Beasts 3 and set a production start date of spring 2020. It seems a little odd that the studio would wait so long to greenlight the third entry in the Harry Potter spin-off series, especially after producers announced plans for five films, but Deadline reports that production "needed more prep time given how quickly they turned around Fantastic Beasts and the Crimes of Grindelwald." The film's production was pushed back several times, with an initial start date set for July 2019, then fall.

The third Fantastic Beasts film, like the past two, will take place in an entirely new continent. Producers plan to take the series across the globe, with each film taking place in a different city. With Fantastic Beasts 3, that city will be Rio de Janeiro.

But as with 2018's Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald — which jumped between Paris, London, and Hogwarts — Rio de Janeiro likely won't be the only location of the film. That's supported by the reported return of Jessica Williams, who briefly appeared in The Crimes of Grindelwald as American Ilvermorny Professor Eulalie "Lally" Hicks, and will have a "bigger role" in Fantastic Beasts 3, according to Deadline. Perhaps we'll finally get a peek at the storied halls of Ilvermorny, America's equivalent of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The fun world-building nods are some of the only entertaining parts of the Fantastic Beasts movies, which have disappointed critically and commercially. Crimes of Grindelwald tanked at the box office and became the first Harry Potter film to receive a Rotten score on Rotten Tomatoes. Perhaps that's why Warner Bros. is taking their time putting together Fantastic Beasts 3, to potentially salvage the poorly received prequels.

Eddie Redmayne is set to return for Fantastic Beasts 3 as Newt Scamander, as well as Jude Law as Albus Dumbledore, Johnny Depp as Gellert Grindelwald, Ezra Miller as Credence / Aurelius Dumbledore, Alison Sudol as Queenie Goldstein, Dan Fogler as Jacob Kowalski, and Katherine Waterston as Tina Goldstein. David Yates returns to direct a screenplay by J.K. Rowling and Steve Kloves.Fantastic Beasts 3 is set to open in theaters on November 12, 2021.