Depp dropped from ‘Fantastic Beasts’
Three times Academy award nominee Johnny Depp recently forced out of the Fantastic Beasts movie franchise days after losing a libel case in Britain against a tabloid that branded him a “wife beater”, the British media reported.
The A-list actor, writing on Instagram, said that AT&T Inc’s Warner Bros movie studio had asked him to leave his role as villain Gellert Grindelwald. “I have respected and agreed to that request,” Depp said.
Amber Heard and Johnny Depp
Warner Bros said in a statement that Depp “will depart the Fantastic Beasts franchise,” and that his role would be recast.
Depp recently resumed production on the third film in the spinoff from Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling. Warner Bros said on Friday its release date had been pushed back to summer 2022 from November 2021.
His exit marked a relatively rare move by Hollywood to recast an actor on ethical grounds.
Depp, 57, who plans to appeal the London libel judgment, wrote that his “life and career will not be defined by this moment”.
The Pirates of the Caribbean star had sued the publishers of the Sun newspaper after it said he had been violent toward former wife Amber Heard, 34. The newspaper also questioned his casting in the Fantastic Beasts franchise.
The three-week libel trial in July heard evidence from both Depp and Heard about a tempestuous marriage marked by violence on both sides and of heavy drinking by Depp. The judge ruled against Depp.
Fantastic Beasts, based on the magical adventures of Newt Scamander, is set some 60 years before the Harry Potter films but features several of the same key characters when they were younger.
The first two of five planned films earned US$1.5 billion at the global box office, according to Box Office Mojo.