EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros. has greenlit the third Fantastic Beasts movie in the Harry Potter spinoff series with production starting spring 2020. While the regular cast is returning, we hear that comedian and actor Jessica Williams, who was featured briefly in part 2’s Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, will have a bigger role this time around with her character, Professor Eulalie “Lally” Hicks, a teacher at Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the American equivalent of Hogwarts.

Jessica Williams

Set to return are Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander, Jude Law as Albus Dumbledore and Johnny Depp as Gellert Grindelwald along with Ezra Miller (Credence / Aurelius Dumbledore), Alison Sudol (Queenie Goldstein), Dan Fogler (Jacob Kowalski) and Katherine Waterston (Tina Goldstein).

David Yates is directing reteaming with producers David Heyman, J.K. Rowling, Steve Kloves, Lionel Wigram and Tim Lewis, along with executive producers Neil Blair, Danny Cohen, Josh Berger and Courtenay Valenti. The screenplay will be written by J.K. Rowling and Steve Kloves.

As with the first two films, the third will take place on new continents, exploring wizarding cultures across the globe. The first Fantastic Beasts film was set in 1927 NYC, the second in Paris and the third film will be set in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Original Fantastic Beasts 3 was to shoot in July 2019, then fall, but the production needed more prep time given how quickly they turned around part Fantastic Beasts and the Crimes of Grindelwald. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Crimes of Grindelwald together made $1.47 billion at the global box office.

Pic opens on Nov. 12, 2021.

Williams is repped by UTA, B Company and Morris Yorn Barnes Levine Krintzman Rubenstein Kohner & Gellman. Williams’ feature credits include Booksmart, Corporate Animals which premiered at Sundance, Hot Tub Time Machine 2 and the Netflix comedy The Incredible Jessica James. On TV, she’s a fixture on The Daily Show, and starred in CBS All Access’ Twilight Zone and HBO’s Girls.