Katherine Waterston on “Fantastic Beasts” 3 Casting Changes and David Yates’s Future as Director

Among Potterheads, Katherine Waterston is best known for her role as Tina Goldstein in the Fantastic Beasts franchise. Her most recent project, The World to Come, showcased her versatility and incredible acting skills and provided fans with the opportunity to see her back on-screen, even if it was for a project other than Fantastic Beasts. Waterston recently joined an episode of Collider Connected to talk about her recent work as well as what it’s like to work on a big franchise film.

Waterston was definitely not a rookie when she landed the role of Tina Goldstein, but she does admit that working on a franchise as big as Fantastic Beasts can be quite daunting. She didn’t really know what she was getting herself into when she got the part. The amount of time spent on filming and press tours takes up a lot of her year. Luckily, telling the story felt the exact same to her as it did for any other film, which Waterston says is what kept her grounded through all the madness that comes with working on a film franchise.

As fans will know, the Fantastic Beasts franchise is set to include a total of five films. There has been a lot of speculation about whether or not David Yates will direct all of them, especially with all the delays the franchise has faced. Waterston has some ideas about how it will pan out, and she seems positive that Yates will indeed direct all five films.

I think he is meant to direct them all. I think it’s very interesting. He’s worked very closely with J.K. Rowling for a long time, and very few people have access to her because she’s quite insulated, and so I can’t really imagine how it could work any other way, frankly.

Along with delays, Fantastic Beasts 3 has also undergone a casting change: Mads Mikkelsen is joining the cast in the third installment as Gellert Grindelwald, replacing Johnny Depp. When asked what she thinks of Mikkelsen, it turns out that Waterston had met him just before he was cast as Grindelwald.

You know, I hung out with Mads in Venice. We were there at the same time this summer, and I’d never met him before, and I had a great time with him. He’s totally lovely. But that was before he was cast – I think that’s right – I think it was just before he was cast, and we don’t have anything together in the film, so I don’t know what it’s like to work with him, unfortunately, but maybe someday we will.

Thinking about it, it would be quite nice to see Tina face off against Grindelwald – we’re pretty sure she’ll be able to beat him in a fight.

Are you looking forward to the third installment of Fantastic Beasts? Are you happy to hear that Yates will probably be directing all five films? Tell us in the comments.