Why Johnny Depp isn't in Fantastic Beasts 3
The first trailer for Fantastic Beasts: Secrets of Dumbledore has arrived, and it brings back an old question: why isn't Johnny Depp in it?
Fantastic Beasts: Secrets of Dumbledore has undergone major changes due to behind-the-scenes issues, and most importantly is the redesign of Gellert Grindelwald, who was played by Johnny Depp and is now played by Mads Mikkelsen - but why Johnny Depp isn't he in Fantastic Beasts 3? The Harry Potter saga may be over, but it wasn't the end of the Wizarding World, which now continues to expand with the Fantastic Beasts trilogy of films, based on JK Rowling's 2001 guidebook Fantastic Beasts and Where find them.
The first Fantastic Beasts movie, directed by David Yates and with a screenplay by Rowling, was released in 2016 and was a critical and commercial success. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald cast a shadow over much of these shots. On top of that, the third film in the series, titled Fantastic Beasts: Secrets of Dumbledore, encountered a few issues during pre-production, and the biggest upset was Gellert Grindelwald's redesign, with Mads Mikkelsen reprising the role played twice by Johnny Depp.
Johnny Depp played Gellert Grindelwald in both Fantastic Beasts films and was scheduled to reprise his role in the third film, but during the pre-production process of Fantastic Beasts 3, Depp was embroiled in a lot of controversy due to his personal life. . In April 2018, Depp sued News Group Newspapers, the publisher of The Sun, for defamation, after the tabloid published an article in which they called Depp a “female thresher”, in the midst of a divorce process. highly publicized and complicated by Amber Heard. The lawsuit against NGN was also not a smooth process, and it resulted in a loss for Depp. Soon after, in November 2020, Warner Bros. asked Johnny Depp to resign, to which Depp agreed, and so Gellert Grindelwald found himself without an actor for a few days.
Although Depp would no longer play Gellert Grindelwald in Fantastic Beasts 3, he still received the full salary he was due to earn, mainly because he was shooting a scene and his contract stated that he would be paid, that the film either finished or not. While Warner's decision has been interpreted by many as the studio's side (especially since Amber Heard has retained her role as Mera in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom), the reality is that the court ruling portrayed a very specific and damaging characterization of Depp, which would have ended up damaging Warner, the Wizarding World, and the Fantastic Beasts series as well. Warner then cast Mads Mikkelsen as Gellert Grindelwald in Fantastic Beasts 3, and production continued as planned.
Grindelwald has worn compelling disguises in the Fantastic Beasts films before, most notably in the first where Colin Farrell's Percival Graves turned out to be Grindelwald in disguise, thus justifying the character overhaul in Fantastic Beasts: Secrets of Dumbledore shouldn't be. a problem. It's unclear whether there will be more films from this branch of the Wizarding World and whether Johnny Depp could return as Grindelwald at some point or not, but it was undoubtedly a big shake up for the franchise.
