Warner Bros. Pictures effectively shut down its “Fantastic Beasts” franchise a while back. The planned five “Harry Potter” prequel films were cut off at three following the second and third, which both underperformed.
Box-office fell from an $812 million worldwide gross for the first to $649 million for the second and $407 million for the third.
One issue they faced was the hiring of Johnny Depp as the villain Gellert Grindelwald. Colin Farrell served as the character’s face throughout the first film until the ending when Depp was revealed. Depp took on the role throughout the second.
By that point, his very public legal battle with ex-wife Amber Heard was in full swing, and so Warner Bros. opted to replace him for the third movie, hiring “Casino Royale” and “Hannibal” star Mads Mikkelsen to take over the part. Reviews for both sequels were poor.
Recently chatting with The Telegraph, Depp was asked about his being kicked out of the Wizarding World franchise and doesn’t mince words:
“Listen, they’ve said all kinds of things out there in the world about me, and it doesn’t bother me. I’m not running for office. It literally stopped in a millisecond, like, while I was doing the movie. They said we’d like you to resign. But what was really in my head was they wanted me to retire.”
So what his response in the moment? Depp says: “F—- you. There’s far too many of me to kill. If you think you can hurt me more than I’ve already been hurt you’re gravely mistaken.”
Depp has been mounting a comeback in recent years, but hasn’t yet returned to blockbuster filmmaking.
