By According to Mads Mikkelsen, Johnny Depp may return to the Fantastic Beasts film franchise following his legal victory against Amber Heard in defamation case, said Mads Mikkelsen.
Mikkelsen replaced Depp as Gellert Grindelwald in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore in 2020 after Depp was compelled to resign after losing a High Court libel trial against ‘The Sun’ over the newspaper’s portrayal of him as a “wife beater.” Now, after winning the highly publicised defamation case against Heard over her 2018 Washington Post op-ed, there is a greater likelihood that he will rejoin the franchise.
After weeks of testimony from witnesses including both Depp and Heard, a jury largely sided with Depp and awarded him $10.4 million in damages. In the aftermath of Depp’s defamation victory, Heard’s team has filed an appeal.
According to Deadline, Mikkelsen described Depp as an “amazing actor” and described taking over the part from him as “quite intimidating” while speaking at the Sarajevo Film Festival;
“It was very intimidating,” said Mikkelsen. “Obviously, well, now the course has changed—he won the suit, the court [case]—so let’s see if he comes back. He might. I’m a big fan of Johnny. I think he’s an amazing actor, I think he did a fantastic job. Having said that, I could not copy it. There was no way I could just copy it, because it’s so much him”
“So we had to come up with something else, something that was mine, and build a bridge between him and me,” Mikkelsen continued. “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,” Mikkelsen shared.
A fourth Fantastic Beasts movie has not yet been announced by the production company.
Earlier this month, Depp revealed his first major acting role since leaving Fantastic Beasts, in which he will be playing King Louis XV in Jeanne Du Barry, directed by French filmmaker Maiwenn. The historical drama will be released in summer 2023.
(Image: Warner Bros. Pictures)
By: Tahsin Aktar
