With director David Yates’ Fantastic Beasts 2 (Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald) arriving in theaters this weekend, I recently sat down with Dan Fogler (Jacob Kowalski) for an exclusive interview. During the wide-ranging conversation, he talked about what it was like making the sequel after the positive audience reaction, when he found out it was going to be a five-film series, how J.K. Rowling changed Jacob's story, what it’s like working on an effects-heavy film, deleted scenes, what he knows about Fantastic Beasts 3, and more.

One again written by J.K. Rowling, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald finds Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) being summoned by Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) after Gellert Grindelwald (Johnny Depp) escapes. Dumbledore wants to stop Grindelwald from recruiting enough Dark Wizards to take over the world. At the same time, Newt and his friends have various problems and mysterious of their own, while Credence (Ezra Miller) has befriended an afflicted woman (Claudia Kim) who eventually becomes the snake Nagini. The film also stars Katherine Waterston, Alison Sudol, Zoe Kravitz, Callum Turner, William Nadylam, Kevin Guthrie, Carmen Ejogo, and Poppy Corby-Tuech.

Check out what Dan Fogler had to say below and look for more interviews in the coming days.

Collider: What was it like stepping back on set for the second one, knowing that the audience responded? Because on when you’re making the first film, you don’t know how fans are going to reaction.

DAN FOGLER: It was very comfortable. I felt like it was like college and being a sophomore, coming back and you know your friends. What was cool is the director, David, was like, "Okay," basically they were like, "You guys, you spent a lot of the first movie figuring out your characters, you know your characters. Go play." That's what I felt like, to have that kind of confidence. Because they had a lot of new characters coming in, so they had to focus on them. That was really cool, man, to just be able to say, "Okay, they trust us to just kick ass and take names," and that's what I felt like. I felt really good about it. I felt really comfortable and I felt like I did some good work, man. Did you dig the movie?

I did. I think I like the second one more than the first. But it's probably because I now know the characters.

FOGLER: That's exactly it.

I'm invested now, when the first one, I was still getting to know everybody.

FOGLER: Exactly. Now, the second one, you don't need too much exposition and you know everybody basically. It's just like let's get off and running and into the building what this is building toward, which is the war.

Is it a three-movie trilogy, is it four? How many movies is this thing supposed to be?

FOGLER: As far as I know, it's five.

Okay, I wasn’t sure.

FOGLER: Did you hear the story about that? We all signed on for like four, at least I signed on for four, that was the maximum that we knew of. Then we're all sitting out on this stage, in front of all this press, like for the first time. [Producer] David Heyman was there, David Yates, and all the four main actors, we're on stage. One of the press people’s first questions they ask J.K. Rowling, when she comes out, is "So, how many are there going to be?" And she says, "Five." We're just all, "Wait a minute."

Right.

FOGLER: Just ca-ching, ca-ching, ca-ching, ca-ching, you know, like crazy cash register sounds are going off in our heads, like, "There's another one?" I didn't know. (Laughs) We were all surprised. I didn't know if David Heyman knew.

Listen, she has what we call a track record.

FOGLER: Yeah. She can see that. She could really have done like, "Seven. There's seven. And there might be nine," you know?

How much did you know about the second one going in? How much is it like you're finding it on the page? How much has she pulled you aside and said, "Here's where I envision the arc going for like everything?"

FOGLER: Well, yeah. She's very particular with the script, and then you get that script to begin with. Then, miraculously, they're very loose with it, man. They let you like play on set and improvise and there's a lot of improv sprinkled throughout the whole movie, which is fantastic that they trust us like that. Then, she'll sit with you. Like, the first movie she sat me down and she basically told me about my whole arc. But then I checked in with her again at the beginning of the second one, she's like, "Oh, that's all changed." I was like, "Oh, man. Come on." Now I'm at the point where I really don't want to know what is ahead. I feel like it should be a surprise. I know a little bit of what's going on in the next movie, that's all I really need to know.

That's also interesting because these are not based on books, so things can be changed. Maybe she sees something in an actor and realizes that would be a great addition.

FOGLER: Yeah. Like, someone does something, so even an improv or something, and she can spin that off into a whole new character. Like, just a tiny example, on the first movie, in that first scene when Jacob comes home to his apartment and I said to David like one of the first rehearsals, I was like, "Wouldn't it be awesome if he like looked over and said, 'Sorry, Grandma,' and there was an actual picture of his grandmother there?" Now, my Mel Brooks brain was like imagining me like standing there with like a grandma wig as the grandma, obviously. But no, they created this whole character that was an amalgamation of two lovely ladies and my face, and they made this. They got work that day, just from some sill improv that I made up.

Now, by the way, in some Harry Potter lore you’ve created a character.

FOGLER: Yeah, Grandma Kowalski. I love it.

One of the things about these movies is that they are very effects-heavy. So what is it like to actually stand on set on one of these kinds of movies and sort of, you see some of the stuff practically and there's going to be other stuff that's added later?

FOGLER: Well, coming from theater it's fun because in theater it's just like if you're in a black box, there's nothing. It's you and a chair and you're in the jungle, you know.You have to plan it all in your head and you've got to make the audience believe it. Then you take those skills and you apply that to a really elaborate set, it's so detailed that you can get lost in it. Then you take the ability that you have to put physics and speed and weight to the creatures, it's like it's a marriage of all the different skills I picked up along the way from theater. Doing even like motion capture, when I did Mars Needs Moms, which was like a similar thing, you have all this tech attached to you, but it's really just like a really elaborate black box theater where you're imagining everything and there's only skeletal sets. But this is like the A plus, plus, topnotch, everywhere you look there's an Academy Award winner at the head of every department. It doesn't get much better than this. Like you said, man, I'm like kid in a candy store.

The editing process is ultimately the final rewrite, and I'm curious if you remember any scenes that didn’t make the final cut. I’m always curious about deleted scenes.

FOGLER: Yeah, me too. All my scenes made it into the movie. Thank God. No, they were very streamlined about certain stories. Like, so I knew like you couldn't really tell my story without every single scene. But there were certain moments that were inside that scene ... like there's extended versions of that scene when I'm like under her spell at the dinner table. There was a whole bit that I had where I was putting salt on the food, and then it's magic salt and the salt just keeps pouring, and then there's a pile of salt on my plate. Just all these crazy Chaplin-esque bits that I put together for that moment, that were just too much for the length of that scene. There were moments in—oh, yeah, I guess there was something that was cut out. Yeah, now that I think about it. You know when we go into the sewers? I react very big to Pickett the Bowtruckle opening the gate. He opens it and I'm just like, "Ha, ha, ha, ha. Thank God," whatever. And it's because there's something that's cut out of that. What was cut out of it was we're trapped in there with that gate closed, and then suddenly this like weird dragon creature starts rising out of the sewers and slowly, and all these little critters start scurrying toward us. That's why I was just extremely happy that the gate came open. But I guess it still works in the way it is. You always run the risk of like having too big of a reaction if they cut something out, you know?

Yeah. I would imagine this is one those films, because of the fandom, that if there was like an extended version fans would eat it up.

FOGLER: Oh, yeah, yeah.

I mean, like it's like a Star Wars movie. The fans want to see everything

FOGLER: Absolutely. Yeah. As they go along and they edit everything together, they realize, "Well, we can't have that scene with all the critters 'cause that would give this bit away later." Everything kind of works out in the end.

Obviously, they're making another one of these, in fact, maybe they're making five. How early on do they tell you like you need to keep your schedule clear in like July of 2019, do you know what I mean? How does that actually work?

FOGLER: Yeah. We're signed, man, we signed the contract and they will not let us take any work past a certain date.

For example, like right now, I don't know when the next one films, but like how early on—

FOGLER: This summer.

Well, that's what I mean. How early on are they telling you, "Hey, so, we're going to make the next one next summer. You can't take any work for six months between these days?"

FOGLER: They basically tell you on the first one, get ready to be busy for the next eight years.

And you're like, "I am in."

FOGLER: I'm in. Thank you for the stability. Where do I sign?

Yes, exactly. I like making my rent.

FOGLER: Yeah, exactly.

So have you heard what the third one is about?

FOGLER: Yeah. A little bit.

Has Jo told you anything?

FOGLER: She's told me how I make my introduction into the next one.