Fantastic Beasts actor Dan Fogler says Fantastic Beasts 3’s start of production was delayed due to the size of the film.

We recently learned that WB decided to give the third installment more prep time, though an exact reason why this was necessary wasn’t made clear (Rowling herself said she completed the script in December).

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Now, speaking to HeyUGuys.com, Fogler said the production delay has been caused by the movie being “gigantic.”

“The reason we were given [for the delay] is that the movie is bigger than the first two combined,” he said. “They needed more time to prep and they didn’t want to rush anything so they pushed it back.”

Notably, Fogler also revealed that the movie will send the characters to Brazil, an element that J.K. Rowling has hinted at but has not explicitly confirmed. “I can tell you that we are going to Brazil,” Fogler said. “I don’t really know much…[laughs]. I’ll get a script closer to when we start shooting.”

I think Fogler’s reason for the delay (“It’s so big and bigger is better!”) is a bit of PR spin that backfires against his intentions. Crimes of Grindelwald was panned by critics — it’s the poorest reviewed film in the Wizarding World franchise — and left many fans overwhelmed and confused due to how much was going on. In all reality, the answer to winning back critics and fans is not making the movie bigger compared to its predecessors… it’s making it smaller. No one should be excited to hear that it’s “bigger than the first two combined.” Yikes.

I think by the time Fantastic Beasts 3 gets filming it’s going to be as simple as Fantastic Beasts 1 — if not simpler. It’ll certainly be no where close to double the scope of the first two movies combined.

Fantastic Beasts 3 was initially flagged for November 2020, but with production now starting this fall, that might date might be pushed back.