The Fantastic Beasts franchise is no stranger to controversies. It is embroiled in various conflicts even before the first movie of the series was released. And now, with less than a month to go, the movie is in the news for all the wrong reasons. It is almost as if the series is cursed.
A one-off controversy, at times, could mean publicity for the movie. However, repeated negative sentiments in relation to a brand causes a lot more harm than good. The Fantastic Beasts brand is at a real risk of getting scarred. When the spin-off series was first launched, Warner Bros. felt they had struck gold with a completely new set of movies related to the hugely popular Harry Potter universe. However, over the years, the movies have caused them a PR nightmare more than once. So, what are the various matters of contention the franchise has been involved over the last few years?
J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter book and creator of the Wizarding World in which the movie is set, has always been vocal with her opinions. This is bound to lead to dispute between her and a set of people who differ with her opinion. The fallout usually is borne by her books or movies based on her writing.
The author, in a series of tweets in June 2020, aired her views on transgenders which offended trans-people as they found it anti-trans. Irrespective of whether her views are viewed as right or wrong individually, the offensive nature of it meant that fans around the world were disappointed. Harry Potter books have stood for equality and love which made these views of her author unfathomable by fans. The star of the Harry Potter movie, Daniel Radcliffe, felt it necessary to make his views clear supporting trans rights and distanced himself from Rowling’s comments. Fantastic Beast actor Eddie Redmayne too spoke out in favour of trans rights. Recently, on International Women’s day, via her tweets, criticized proposed amendments to Scotlan’s Gender Recognition Reform BIll. This bill makes legally changing gender easier for citizens. These comments may have alienated a segment of fans forever.
Separately, in 2016, before the first movie – Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them – released, news broke of an appearance of Johnny Depp in a key role (which eventually turned out to be the role of Grindelwald – the main villain in the series). This created negative press as Johnny Depp, only months before this news, was involved in a divorce with Amber Heard who had accused him of domestic violence (Depp denies these allegations). Warner Bros. and J.K. Rowling made matters worse in terms of PR when they decided to stick with Depp in the sequel – Crimes of Grindelwald – where he played the titular character. However, Warner Bros eventually had to ask Depp to resign as the controversy refused to die down and continued to create a negative impact.
Apart from this, the series had to also grapple with questions about a video of actor Ezra Miller – part of the ensemble cast – choking a woman in April 2020. The makers were also at the receiving end of criticism when an Asian actor was hired for the role of Nagini – a snake which was a pet and slave of Voldemort in the Harry Potter books. Viewers found it racially insensitive to cast an Asian woman for a character which will eventually turn out to be a subordinate of a ‘dictator-like white man’. On top of it, in defence of the casting choice, Rowling said that the Naga mythology originated in Indonesia. This was problematic from two perspectives – one, the actress hired as Nagini wasn’t Indonesian but South Korean; second, author Amish Tripathi responded by clarifying that the Naga mythology emerged from India.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them grossed US$ 814 million worldwide. However, the Crimes of Grindelwald failed to live up to expectations. It earned US$ 655 million worldwide which is the lowest grossing movie of the Wizarding World franchise (across 8 Harry Potter and 2 Fantastic Beasts movies). For Warner Bros., the upcoming movie is a litmus test for the future of the franchise. They and Rowling would hope the worst is behind them and the curse lifts off.