Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was all set to expand the Wizarding World but seemed to have fallen victim to the curse of WB, much like the DCEU. Plagued with controversies surrounding the author and actors of the series, the franchise as a whole ended up canceling its planned 5 films, cutting it down to a trilogy.
One of the biggest exits of the franchise was that of Johnny Depp. The actor was promptly dropped from the franchise following his devastating and public trial with Amber Heard, which also lost the actor other opportunities like his role as Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.
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Surprisingly, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore eclipses its predecessors
Netflix has come out with a report with regards to the many properties that are streaming on it, and it seems that while The Secrets of Dumbledore suffered at the box office, it prospered on the streaming platform, without the star power of Johnny Depp behind it. According to the report, The Secrets of Dumbledore comes out on top as the most watched of the three films in the franchise.
While Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them comes in dead last with only 4 million hours watched, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald raked in almost 5.1 million hours of watch time. Far exceeding both these entries, the third installment in the franchise garnered a total of 5.9 million hours, completely upending the assumption that Depp’s exit would hurt the franchise among the fans.
Johnny Depp’s exit from the Wizarding World was controversial
Johnny Depp essays the role of Gellert Grindelwald, Albus Dumbledore’s long-lost lover and the main antagonist of the Fantastic Beasts series. The character was especially well-received among fans, mostly because of Depp’s acting. However, in the wake of the trial with Amber Heard, Depp was replaced with Mads Mikkelsen, causing fans to rage against the WB machine, especially because Amber Heard retained her role as Mera in the DCEU. Amber Heard is still set to appear in Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom, while the Fantastic Beast franchise is essentially dead for the time being. No sequels have been scheduled for this arm of the franchise, as the IP focuses on expanding the world and the upcoming reboot.
Fans started numerous campaigns to restore Johnny Depp to the franchise but did not yield any results in time. Fantastic Beast: The Secrets of Dumbledore starred Mikkelsen as Grindelwald, cementing Depp’s exit from the franchise. However, it would seem that while the box office for the third Fantastic Beasts film was disappointing, the viewership for the third film trumped that of its two predecessors when it was made available on streaming.
All three Fantastic Beasts films are available to stream on HBO Max
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