It didn’t take Warner Bros long to find their replacement for Johnny Depp in the Fantastic Beasts franchise as Mads Mikkelson is on the top of the list play Grindelwald in the third instalment of the Harry Potter spinoff.
Deadline broke the story stating Mikkelson is director David Yates’ choice to play the villain and talks are still in the early stages, but they want to wrap it up asap. So they continue to be on track for their summer 2022 release date (recently moved from its original November 12, 2021).
The move comes shortly after Depp completed one day of filming for Fantastic Beasts 3 – where Depp got paid for the whole film but is on a five-picture deal – following his defeat in the British courts agreeing with The Sun newspapers description labelling him a “wife beater” to ex-wife Amber Heard.
Since then WB has been racing to find a replacement with Yates being a massive fan of the Danish actor and the studio trying to lock him in.
Ironically, I was going to write a five-man shortlist that was going to include the likes of Sam Claflin, Ewen McGregor and Matt Smith, to be honest, I don’t know if Mikkelson would be on their solely because I wouldn’t think he’d be interested.
This that saying, Mads is the perfect person to play the character and could be the needed injection to make people interested in this failing franchise.
The Bear Cave 