The release of the third Fantastic Beasts movie is upon us, but the press coverage has been abysmal. I have hope that Warner Brothers may let Harry Potter fans (past and present) and appreciators of coherent films let out a collective sigh of relief by prematurely slaying the five-movie snake that is Fantastic Beasts.Īlready, the evidence seems to be pointing to the desolation of the franchise. The Divergent trilogy’s trajectory gives me hope for Fantastic Beasts. What could have been an embarrassing four movie money-sink franchise became a slightly cheaper, forgotten 2010s relic. The heads of the franchise felt the public mood (ambivalent), saw the money to be made (mediocre) and condemned the venture. To this day, the Divergent trilogy stands out as a successful case study in corporate reality checks. With a fairly entertaining first movie and unremarkable sequels, the actors, cast, crew and audience disbanded. Due to the dismal response to the third movie, the production company decided against producing “Allegiant Part II.” A mercy killing. But the public appetite for fictionalized social change accompanied by intra-movie incest was on the rocks. The Divergent trilogy planned for four movies and even titled its third movie as part one of two. However, despite the inclusion of a brooding, emotionally closed-off love interest named after a number (Theo James, “Allegiant”) and a calculating brother in Ansel Elgort (“West Side Story”) - who had the honor of playing both Woodley’s love interest and brother in different movies released in the same year - the franchise is most notable for its rapid decline in popularity. The movie, featuring a black-leather-clad teenage girl (Shailene Woodley, “Big Little Lies”) leading the vanguard of a social revolution, had widespread popularity despite the lackluster critical reception.

The Divergent trilogy debuted in the spring of 2014 at the height of the YA dystopian movie craze.

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