I think it's pretty clear the Fantastic Beasts franchise is done after this. I think the obvious thing to do is tell a story with the original cast at some point, but I think in the meantime I think a film based solely on Dumbledore/Grindelwald with their duel at the end could put up decent numbers in the mean time. Just get rid of the Fantastic Beasts label and make it solely about them.

Strike Cursed Child from canon, pay off JK Rowling and let a new writer pick up where Deathly Hallows left off. The actors all look the same as they did 11 years ago. Harry growing up to be a cop who marries his high school girlfriend doesn't sit right in today's world. A new adventure is needed.

What I would do is make a last Fantastic Beasts film with the Dumbledore vs Grindelwald duel and call it a day. Calling it like... Dumbledore v Grindelwald or whatever won't make it suddenly do big numbers.

After that if the trio still don't want to do a new film then they should make movies on the Mauraders (James, Sirius, Lupin), that'd be fun. But yeah please have someone else write them dear god.

Just Fantastic Beasts four with marketing built around the big duel, and Grindelwald turns back into Depp. But as mentioned in the other thread have some time travel gimmick where Hagrid is in it or something to draw interest

Other than that go away and wait for the original three. It's too late to make a Malfoy family series or something at this point after the brand was diluted by Fantastic Beasts.

Er yeah no Depp please. Mads was an upgrade and was very good in the new film.

Let it rest, cool off the franchise, make people want it again, then come back with a movie that plays hard on nostalgia. My guess would be they'll go hard on trying to get back the OG trio.

Another FB will do Dark Phoenix numbers.

Time for a straight to HBO Max series about house elves.

The last film was catastrophic for the brand overall, a Last Jedi moment. Plus her ongoing trans issues have tarnished her name in the press and among a significant portion of the fanbase. At this point the big payday is another movie with the original cast, but if they are not interested then they’re the ones holding J. K. Rowling hostage. These last two fantastic beasts film prove that her name alone is not enough.

2 film Cursed Child will be big in about 10 years, once all the child actors get a Tobey McGuire Nostalgia and enough money for it. The play is fantastic and retouches on familiar themes like TFA.

No more films, maybe something on HBO Max until then, but I don't know if they're TV division will be any good, might hurt the series more.

Potter fans are weird. Casual audiences will flock to the Cursed Child though.

A prequel series on the founding fathers of Hogwarts would be cool. Could be a good way to Mandalorianing their way back into the public's goodwill.

Feel like the natural solution if they want to keep the budget controlled without original cast members will have to be seeing a string of films (a trilogy) of the parents and professors as Hogwarts students.

Cast a whole bunch of A-listers to be young Snape, McGonagall, Voldemort, Hagrid, Bellatrix Lestrange, Sirius Black, Weasley parents, Hermoine parents, Harry Potter parents, Malfoy parents, etc.

Follow the SW Episode 1-3 playbook to a tee. Finish the movie to lead right into the original HP movie or HP being born, sort of how the transition went with Rogue One to Ep. 4.

The problem is that we already know what happened, whereas no one knew exactly how Darth Vader had turned to the dark side

While Barrabis is right that it doesn't have quite as good a hook as Anakin to Darth Vader, I think going all in Voldemort culminating is still a workable idea and the direction they should have gone rather than Dumbledore.

Movie 1 - Tom Riddle up through Hogwarts until he changes his name to Voldemort. Some of it repeats Chamber of Secrets but I think most people would have forgot. Lots of "young X" characters at Hogwarts.

Movie 2 - Rise of Death Eaters/1920s and 1930s Hitler type phase for Voldemort, creation of Order of the Phoenix, etc.

Movie 3 - The first war up until he tries to kill Harry, or the war starts in movie 2 and movie 3 is basically wall to wall action like the last Hobbit movie

Oh god, hobbit 2 and 3 were dreadful. They’d definitely need better scriptwriters. The problem woth that story is you have no one to root for really. Lily and James Potter you can’t really root for, as you’d have to really rewrite everything to make them important (the whole idea was no one new they were until he tried to kill potter) making them some sort of Mary/Joseph would not go over well.

I’d much rather the world of the wizards the dorms were made of, or cursed child 2 film

Honestly they’d be better improving on the standalone movie idea that SW fizzled on. They should not commit to some half baked franchise pivoted by test screenings again, and move on to a new writer. JK is spent. We need some new mud blood

Cursed Child is a no brainer but it would 100% need to be sooner than in ten years. Potter has not had staying power on the scale that Star Wars had through the late 1980s and early/mid 1990s. The brand is still very big

If Cursed Child is going to happen, it needs to be fairly soon, i.e. 2025-2026ish.

It was far from their only problem but the Fantastic Beasts series is a title catastrophe to me both between having to drag along the original moniker when you're trying to sell this five movie Dumbledore/Grindewald plot, and The Crimes of Grindelwald and especially The Secrets of Dumbledore are both lame subtitles compared to stuff like The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, The Desolation of Smaug or The Battle of the Five Armies ("An Unexpected Journey" I guess is a little lame, but appropriate for first movie).

I'd also be fine with an animated movie like Spider man into the Spider Verse for this franchise.

They could have salvaged the subtitle with just a few different placements of letters.

Secret of the Dumbledores.

I think that sounds way cooler and much more mysterious. Deathly Hallows already gave us all the Secrets of Dumbledore, but now there are more Dumbledores with a bigger secret?