When Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore was released in theaters, the film fell below expectations at the box office, putting the future of the franchise in jeopardy. While it’s hard to pinpoint any one specific cause as to why Fantastic Beasts 3 came up short, it certainly didn’t help that Johnny Depp left the sequel’s production in controversial fashion. While Depp had begun filming scenes for his planned return as Grindelwald, he wound up stepping down from the role at the behest of Warner Bros., the actor later testified in court.
Many Depp fans felt that it wasn’t right for the actor to lose his role in the film and announced their intentions to boycott its release. Be that as it may, Warner Bros. charged forward with the release as planned with new actor Mads Mikkelson taking over the role of Grindelwald. While Mikkelsen’s performance drew some critical praise, recasting Depp’s character still may have put a big dent in the ticket sales for Fantastic Beasts 3.
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Per Deadline, Mikkelsen has again addressed the recasting situation. As someone who’s a fan of Depp himself, Mikkelsen says it was “very intimidating” to step into that role. As Depp has now been vindicated in the eyes of many due to his defamation trial victory, it’s also speculated by Mikkelsen that Depp could very well end up coming back to the role.
Fantastic Beasts 3 Introduced a New Grindelwald
Via: Warner Bros. Pictures
Mikkelsen went on to further explain what it felt like to succeed Depp in that role. While he was playing the same character, Mikkelsen knew that the best course of action was not to replicate what Depp brought to the role as that wouldn’t be possible.
There had been rumors that the future of the Fantastic Beasts series would depend upon just how well The Secrets of Dumbledore performed. Because it was the lowest-drawing installment of the Harry Potter franchise, that could have Warner Bros. feeling leery about moving forward with another installment. As Mikkelsen has theorized, bringing Johnny Depp back for the role could be a way of generating interest for a potential fourth chapter of the Fantastic Beasts series, but would he be interested at this point? Depp has said he won’t return to the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise after getting fired by Disney and he might feel the same way about Warner Bros. and Fantastic Beasts. Ultimately, time will tell.
“I could not copy it. There’s there was no way I could just copy it, because it’s so much him. It would be creative suicide. So, we had to come up with something else, something that was mine, and build a bridge between him and me. So, yes, it was intimidating. His fans were very, very sweet, but they were also very stubborn. I didn’t interact too much with them, but I could understand why they had their hearts broken.”
