David Yates

The HP movies bounced around among different directors up to Order of the Phoenix.

First there was Chris Columbus, then Alfonso Cuarón, and then Mike Newell. And that was fun and all when we were younger and things were less…complicated, but we're careening toward the finish line now—and things are getting super stressful and nail-bite-worthy.

So, it's probably good that a single director, David Yates, took the reins of the Harry Potter movies in Phoenix and is carrying the franchise right through to the end. A little continuity in an ever-changing magical universe.

Well, at least we feel good about it.

Yates' resume prior to joining up with our magical friends is super diverse. He'd done lots of TV work across different genres, such as comedy (The Young Visiters—yes, that's actually how it's spelled, and Slughorn ,a.k.a. Jim Broadbent, is in it, too), international drama (Sex Traffic), and suspense (State of Play).

And hey, those are all genres that poke their heads out in the Harry Potter films, so it makes sense that the Harry Potter powers-that-be tapped him to work on the series.

We're pretty sure that Harry Potter took Yates' name recognition to a whole new level, though. Oh, and it got him more work, too: he's slated to direct all five of the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them movies. Not too shabby.