Johnny Depp might return to Fantastic Beasts, says Mads Mikkelsen, who replaced him in Harry Potter spinoff franchise

Johnny Depp may end up returning as wizard Gellert Grindelwald in the Fantastic Beasts series. And this is something Mads Mikkelsen, the actor who replaced him in the role, has said. Johnny played Grindelwald in the Harry Potter spinoff in the first two films. Thereafter, he was replaced with Mads in the wake of the domestic abuse allegations levelled against him by his ex-wife Amber Heard. Also read: Mads Mikkelsen to replace Johnny Depp in Fantastic Beasts

Mads Mikkelsen played the famous dark wizard in the third film Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, which was released earlier this year. Fans have campaigned for Johnny to be brought back now that he has won a defamation suit against Amber after domestic violence allegations. Many see this as proof of his innocence.

In a recent interview to Deadline, Mads said, “Obviously, well, now the course has changed — he won the suit (against Amber), the court (case) — so let’s see if he comes back. He might.” The actor added that it was intimidated to take on the role after Johnny and he understood why his fans ‘had their hearts broken’.

“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’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,” he added.

Johnny appeared in the role in a cameo towards the end of the first film– Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016), before starring in the second film Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018). The series also stars Eddie Redmayne, Jude Law, Ezra Miller, and Katherine Waterson. Two more films have been announced in the series but work on the fourth part has not begun yet.