David Yates talks ‘Fantastic Beasts’ future and new opioids crisis film ‘Pain Hustlers’

David Yates, who directed the final four Harry Potter films as well as recent spin-off series Fantastic Beasts, has confirmed that their are no current plans for a sequel to last year’s Secrets Of Dumbledore – but he also said the franchise could return in the future.

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore was released in April 2022, starring Eddie Redmayne as magical zoologist Newt Scamander who teams up with Jude Law’s wizard professor Albus Dumbledore to fight against an encroaching evil. Despite topping the box office in its first weekend, the film suffered the lowest opening of the Wizarding World franchise. Some attributed this to a fan boycott launched in opposition to J.K. Rowling’s well-publicised views on transgender issues. Earlier this year, Redmayne told NME that a fourth film was “not something that’s on the cards”.

Now Yates has given his own update in an interview with NME. “We made the last one in the middle of a pandemic and it was an extraordinary experience,” he said, “but we’ve just sort of parked it for a wee while and let it settle for a bit.”

He continued: “But what Eddie created with Newt Scamander, he’s sort of a timeless character and I can definitely see that human being coming back. He’s endlessly entertaining and poignant and funny and gifted. So never say never?”

In April, a new Harry Potter TV series was officially confirmed to be in the works. The HBO Max production is to be “a faithful adaptation of the iconic books”, but no further details have been released. Yates has not been approached to collaborate on the new show either.

“Because I’ve been there, and I spent a number of years in that world, I know it’s impossible to kind of go back,” he said.

“And, you know, I think it’s an enormous undertaking, by the way. When we were making our films, the world was very different. We were able to put a ring of fire around the kids that we worked with and protect them to a certain extent. Now with social media and all sorts of things, it’s a challenging prospect building a huge TV show with a very young cast.

“I know everyone who’s involved will be super mindful of protecting them and guiding through that experience, without question or doubt. But it was challenging when we did it. And I think the environment’s got even more testy.”

Yates is currently promoting his new film, Pain Hustlers, released on Netflix today (October 27). It stars Emily Blunt as struggling single mum Liza Drake, who talks her way into a job at a bankrupt pharmaceutical company selling new pain medication Lonafen to doctors. Her guts and questionable morals help turn the outfit around, but they also put her in the middle of a criminal conspiracy.

Pain Hustlers follows several other recent projects about the US opioids crisis, including Emmy-winning miniseries Dopesick and Netflix’s own Painkiller. Yates is confident they’ve managed to tell the story a fresh way.

“There’s a lot of humour [in the film],” he said, pointing out the more melancholic tone of Dopesick and Painkiller. “There are a lot of absurd character moments and it gives the actors something fun to get their teeth into and something fun for me to direct.”

He continued: “When you develop a screenplay, you start with a treatment or an outline of what you want to do. Even at that stage, we were saying: ‘What we can do here to really make this more playful and more kinetic and funnier. That’s what we wanted.”

‘Pain Hustlers’ is streaming on Netflix now

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