“Fantastic Beasts 3” will be streaming on HBO Max next week, the streamer announced on Monday.
As expected, “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” will be available to all HBO Max subscribers 45 days after it first hit theaters, landing on the streaming service on May 30.
The third installment in the “Fantastic Beasts” franchise delves deeper into the backstory of Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) all the while the evil Gellert Grindelwald (now played by Mads Mikkelsen in a recasting following Johnny Depp’s exit) amasses his forces.
Unable to stop Grindelwald alone, Dumbledore entrusts Magizoologist Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) to lead an intrepid team of wizards, witches and one brave Muggle baker on a dangerous mission, where they encounter old and new beasts and clash with Grindelwald’s growing legion of followers. But with the stakes so high, how long can Dumbledore remain on the sidelines?
The film serves as both a bit of a course-correction and an abrupt conclusion to the series, which was originally intended to span five feature films. Beset by lower-than-anticipated box office for each entry (“Secrets of Dumbledore” has grossed half of the previous installment’s worldwide box office) and the increasingly controversial nature of series creator and writer J.K. Rowling, “The Secrets of Dumbledore” feels like it undoes some of the plot twists of the previous installment while bringing things to a place where, if this is indeed the end of the road for the franchise, there is at least some conclusive nature to the story arcs of the characters.
“Fantastic Beasts 3” is the second major new release from Warner Bros. to head to HBO Max 45 days after it first hit theaters, following the streaming debut of the blockbuster superhero reboot “The Batman” in April.
“Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” also stars Ezra Miller, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, William Nadylam, Callum Turner, Jessica Williams, Victoria Yeates, Poppy Corby-Tuech, Fiona Glascott, Katherine Waterston, Maria Fernanda Cândido, Richard Coyle, Oliver Masucci, Valerie Pachner and Aleksandr Kuznetsov.
The film was directed by David Yates, from a screenplay by J.K. Rowling & Steve Kloves, based upon a screenplay by J.K. Rowling. The film was produced by David Heyman, J.K. Rowling, Steve Kloves, Lionel Wigram and Tim Lewis. Neil Blair, Danny Cohen, Josh Berger, Courtenay Valenti and Michael Sharp served as executive producers.
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