While the Fantastic Beasts franchise isn't anywhere near as popular as the original Harry Potter series of films, it's by no means a failure. The first two films alone, while not critical darlings, have made over $1 billion combined at the global box office. Still, the third entry in this franchise comes at a peculiar time for the series. JK Rowling continues to incite criticism for her transphobic comments, while Fantastic Beasts star Ezra Miller was recently arrested in Hawaii--which has reportedly led to future collaborations with Warner Bros. being paused.

That's a lot for the third Fantastic Beasts to contend with, along with a recasting of Johnny Depp, whose role as Grindelwald has been taken over by Hannibal star Mads Mikkelsen in the new film. With such a tricky line to walk, it would have been easy for the entire project to fall apart, resulting in a subpar movie. After all, the last in the series--The Crimes of Grindelwald--made less at the box office than the movie before it and tallied up a pretty lackluster Rotten Tomatoes score of 36%.

Surprisingly, though, The Secrets of Dumbledore fares rather well. It's by no means a Top 5 contender for Wizarding World movies, but it's a big improvement over The Crimes of Grindelwald. It wraps up the cliffhanger that movie left behind and manages to tell a story that could easily wrap up the franchise, if it's decided that further movies aren't necessary.