Johnny Depp ‘might’ return to Fantastic Beasts franchise, suggests Mads Mikkelsen

metro.co.uk:

Johnny Depp could make a surprise return to the Fantastic Beasts fold.The 59-year-old originally played Gellert Grindelwald in the first two outings of the Harry Potter spin-off, before he was replaced in 2022 sequel, The Secrets of Dumbledore over his highly-publicized legal battles, most recently against ex-wife Amber Heard.Speaking about the decision to portray the fictional character, made famous by author JK Rowling, Mikkelsen admitted that he was ‘intimidated’ to take over the part.During an appearance at the Sarajevo Film Festival, the 58-year-old reportedly said via Deadline: ’It was very intimidating.

Obviously, well, now the course has changed—he won the suit, the court [case]—so let’s see if he comes back. He might.’Discussing his own portrayal of Grindelwald, the Hannibal star explained that he was forced to go back to the drawing board for the character, as Depp had put ‘so much’ of himself into the part.‘I’m a big fan of Johnny.

I think he’s an amazing actor, I think he did a fantastic job,’ he continued. ‘Having said that, 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.‘We had to come up with something else, something that was mine, and build a bridge between him and me.