Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them wont be directed by Alfonso Cuarn

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“I want to clean my palate”

Director Alfonso Cuarón has confirmed that he won’t be directing the adaptation of Harry Potter spin-off Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them .

Despite reports last week that he was "deep in talks" with Warner Bros to return to the Potter-verse after helming the much-loved third Harry Potter film, Cuarón says he’s put off by the extensive visual effects involved.

“I have a lot of love for that universe,” Cuarón tells the Global Post, “and I tremendously admire J.K. Rowling, but today, for the present, projects based around lots of visual effects don't attract me.

“I'm coming out of a five-year process of doing visual effects [ on Gravity] and now I sort of want to clean my palate of that a little bit.”

Considering the style and energy Cuarón brought to Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban (he was the first to ‘go dark’ with the franchise), it’s a shame that he won’t be returning for more.

No word yet who Warner Bros will be approaching next, but you can bet David Yates is on their list…

Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them opens 18 November 2016.

Joshua Winning

Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.