The big draw of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them – at least for me – was that it injected some American pizazz into the stultifyingly British world of Harry Potter. Switching from the anonymous mundanity of Privet Drive for the soaring bustle of 1920s New York was a masterstroke. But it wasn’t to last.
For this year’s sequel, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, the franchise is upping sticks again and moving to Paris. And don’t assume that this is a one-off deal – director David Yates has revealed that every Fantastic Beasts sequel will be set in a different city. Luckily for all involved, I have some suggestions on where it should go next.
Shanghai
If the first Fantastic Beasts is anything to go by, JK Rowling has a wide-eyed, anything’s-possible vision when it comes to cities. They’re giddy and busy and always on the move. So where better place to set Fantastic Beasts 3 than pre-communist Shanghai? Known as “the Paris of the east, Shanghai in the 1920s must have felt like the centre of the Earth; a international convergence point of money and glamour and culture that hummed with possibility. And if the thought of Newt Scamander hurtling around the Bund isn’t enough to convince Rowling, then the prospect of billions of Chinese box office dollars might.
Berlin
If Fantastic Beasts follows a similar arc to Harry Potter, then the films will get darker as the series progresses. We know that the world of Fantastic Beasts will intersect with the second world war at some point, so why not set a film right in the heart of it? A Berlin-set Fantastic Beasts 4 would reveal the darker side of cities as well as showing youngsters the horrors of war in an accessible way. Failing that, they could set it in modern-day Berlin and its network of insufferably hipster coffee shops.
Havana
With our first four Fantastic Beasts movies having been set in slightly oppressive industrial cities, let’s go tropical. Fantastic Beasts 5: Revolución! is set in 1950s Cuba, and sees the wizarding action play out in Havana against the backdrop of Fidel Castro’s rise. Once again, this would demonstrate the fact that a city is nothing more than a populous tinderbox, forever lurking on the edge of chaos. It could also include plenty of shots of Queenie riding around on a motorbike smoking cigars. Although only five Fantastic Beasts movies have been planned, the Cuba-set episode will be such a success that two more will be instantly greenlit.
Brasília
Enough darkness. Let’s change pace and use Fantastic Beasts 6 to show the unbridled optimism cities can offer. In 1960, the capital of Brazil changed from Rio de Janeiro to the modernist utopia of Brasília. I’ve got no idea how Fantastic Beasts 6 could utilise this place at this time, but the architecture is nice and that would help offset the sensation that the franchise is losing steam and should probably be put to bed.
Wakefield
Tragedy strikes. Fantastic Beasts 6 was such a financial disaster and the franchise’s wheels are falling off. Broken but not beaten, Yates and Rowling embrace the low studio-enforced budget for the next sequel and go about making the Superman IV of wizarding films. Fantastic Beasts 7 will be shot on an iPhone in Wakefield and feature a recast Dumbledore (now played by the man from the GoCompare adverts) slumped forlornly at the bar in Kooky nightclub next to a Thunderbird (now a cocker spaniel with a plastic beak superglued to its face). It does not do well.