Director David Yates is a man who clearly knows what he likes. And what he likes, apparently, is wizards: According to The Hollywood Reporter, Yates has now signed on to direct all five of J.K. Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them films, a move that will likely keep him in butterbeer and fresh wands at least through 2024. (There’s no exact schedule for the last three Beasts movies, but Warner Bros. is leaving a two-year gap between the first’s release next week, and the second’s in 2018, so 2024 seems like a safe guess.)
Between his work on Beasts and his directing of the last four Harry Potter movies, Yates is setting himself up for a nine-film streak in Rowling’s wizarding world. That’s a hypothetical 17 years on the franchise, potentially making him the Michael Apted—of Up series fame—of movies about magical Brits.