Alfonso Cuaron said he would not be directing Harry Potter Spin off "Fantastic Beasts and where to find them"

Last week, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban director Alfonso Cuarón, who went onto find enormous success with the sci-fi thriller Gravity, was rumored to be returning to the world of Harry Potter with the new spin-off Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The director has now responded to those rumors, claiming he is not interested in taking on the project.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them will be the first in a planned trilogy, set 70 years before Harry Potter first arrives at Hogwarts, following the fictitious author Newton Artemis Fido "Newt" Scamander and his adventures throughout the wizarding world of New York City. While the laws and customs of the magical society will be familiar to readers and fans of the movies, the spin-off will introduce a new set of characters and creatures. And it will rely heavily on visual effects. This does not interest Alfonso Cuarónas he continues to excel forward with his career.

This is what Alfonso Cuarón had to say about the rumor:

"[Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban] was a very beautiful experience for me. I have a lot of love for that universe 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 and now I sort of want to clean my palate of that a little bit."

This wouldn't be the first time a director said that they weren't interested in a project, only to see them sign on shortly after. Also last week, Alfonso Cuarón's name was also mentioned for The Shining prequel The Overlook Hotel. Its possible that he is taking this job over the world of Harry Potter, but nothing has been confirmed by Warner Bros. just yet, home to both projects.