Fantastic Beasts 3 already had a lot of questions to answer and now it has to explain why No-Maj Jacob Kowalski is half the man he used to be. Thankfully, actor Dan Fogler has an idea that might fit naturally with the storytelling of the third movie.
Not that he's seen a script for Fantastic Beasts 3. No, Harry Potter author and Fantastic Beasts screenwriter J.K. Rowling is STILL working on a new script for the third movie, which will start filming in February 2020.
Dan Fogler recently shared his hopes for Jacob and Queenie in Fantastic Beasts 3. As you'll recall, things did not end well for the couple in the second movie, The Crimes of Grindelwald. Queenie made the shocking choice to join Team Grindelwald at his base in Nurmengard. Jacob is still Team Newt on the other side.
Here's what Dan Fogler told fans at LeakyCon 2019 Boston (via Comicbook), noting how his own weight loss could help with Jacob's Fantastic Beasts 3 story:
I hope that he gets Queenie back. … I haven’t seen a script yet, and I’ve lost a significant amount of weight, and I think it will be funny if — you know how she put a spell on me to follow her around like a puppy? What if she also put a spell on me to get fit? So there’s that. But also, on a philosophical level, it’ll be interesting… We’re in the middle of the Depression, he’s just on a bender of loss. He lost her … I’m just saying this is the thing that I have in my head, that he’s lost his appetite.
Yeah, they could cover it any number of ways. That's the benefit of magic, but also of depression and the early 20th Century capital D Depression. That said, is J.K. Rowling currently writing any of that into the Fantastic Beasts 3 script? Did Dan Fogler warn The Powers That Be that he was going to lose all this weight, and they'd have to explain why baker Jacob is now wafer thin?
Here's a look at Dan Fogler as Luke in The Walking Dead Season 10, which is now airing on AMC:
Weight loss does make sense for the zombie apocalypse, and maybe it also makes sense for Jacob if his depression manifests in not eating. (I tend to binge eat when I'm upset, but I wouldn't mind having the opposite problem.)
Here's Dan Fogler's Fantastic Beasts 3 filming update from the recent fan convention:
We haven’t started filming yet. We start in February. Last we heard, J.K. [Rowling] … she’s been writing furiously, everyone was really happy with what she submitted, and we’re all just waiting for the new script. And that’s where we’re at.
That's where they are at. It sounds similar to what Eddie Redmayne recently said, about the script still not being finished. Redmayne, aka Newt Scamander, was excited about the story ahead, so even if they haven't seen the script, I think the actors at least have a basic idea of what's ahead. Dan Fogler previously said Fantastic Beasts 3 production had to be delayed several months because the movie is "gigantic" and bigger than the first two films combined.
But we also know the second movie disappointed with fans and at the box office, and Warner Bros.'s former boss even weighed in to say J.K. Rowling was heading back to work on the script to make sure they would get it just right. That was back in February and the script is still being polished here in October. At least we know they are taking this VERY seriously.
Fantastic Beasts 3 is currently scheduled for release on November 12, 2021. Here's what else we know so far about the third movie in what's still -- as far as we know -- planned to be a five-film franchise.
