Even though Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a full three months away, Warner Bros. is moving quickly to get a new trilogy off the ground. The first follow-up to the wizarding world epic is now slated for November 16th, 2018. David Yates will return as director, working with a script written by J.K. Rowling herself.

The next film in the franchise

Plot details are unsurprisingly thin, but The Hollywood Reporter writes that the sequel will be a darker affair, delving deeper in the American wizarding world that Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) will introduce audiences to this fall. And Warner Bros. has already been mapping out a trilogy for the new franchise, with Rowling revealing in March that Fantastic Beasts would turn into three movies. (And there may be even more than that ahead.)

All this comes at a time when the Harry Potter mythos is growing. The British stage production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which follows Harry's life years after the defeat of Voldemort, opened to rave reviews last weekend, and the published script swiftly became a US bestseller. And even though Rowling has stated that she's done with Harry Potter, Warner Bros. may not be, since it filed a film trademark on the play last month. It's pretty clear at this point that the Potter expanded universe isn't going anywhere anytime soon.