that Albus Dumbledore would be appearing in future instalments, albeit with a younger actor for the prequel film series, intended to eventually supplant Redmayne's Scamander as protagonist of the series. In April 2017, it was confirmed that Jude Law had been cast as Dumbledore. with the film being short and set in New York City, Britain, and Paris. Principal photography began on 3 July 2017, at Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden, and wrapped on 20 December 2017, with Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald releasing on 16 November 2018. Originally scheduled to begin filming in July 2019, and released in November 2020, production of the third film was pushed back to late 2019 to allow more time polishing the script and re-plan the future of the Fantastic Beasts series. In 2018 on Twitter, Rowling promised that the third film would give answers to the questions left unsolved in the first two. In October 2019, Dan Fogler claimed that principal photography on the third film would begin in February 2020. In November 2019, it was announced that the script had been written by both Rowling and Steve Kloves, the latter of whom returned after being absent as a writer on the first two. On 16 March 2020, the very day that principal photography would begin, the COVID-19 pandemic prompted Warner Bros. to postpone production of its third Fantastic Beasts film. This made the film be postponed again, from a 12 November 2021 to a 15 July 2022 release. On 20 August 2020, filming was confirmed to start in September. On 20 September 2020, Eddie Redmayne confirmed that filming was two weeks underway with safety precautions in place to keep the cast and crew safe from COVID-19. On 6 November 2020, Johnny Depp informed that Warner Bros. asked him to step down as Grindelwald and he accepted to do it. Later, on 25 November 2020, Warner Bros. announced that Mads Mikkelsen would replace Depp in the role of Grindelwald. On 3 February 2021, filming in the UK was shut down after a production member tested positive for COVID-19. Composer James Newton Howard confirmed later that month that production had wrapped filming. In September 2021, the film's release was pushed forward three months to 15 April 2022, alongside the announcement of the full title: Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore. It premiered one week early in a few European and Asian countries. Films Fantastic