Fantastic Beasts: Mads Mikkelsen Says Johnny Depp ‘Might’ Come Back for Grindelwald

The Fantastic Beasts franchise had started with Johnny Depp being touted as Gellert Grindelwald, but after some IRL legal problems with his ex-wife Amber Heard, Depp had been booted from the franchise and replaced with Mads Mikkelsen. With Depp winning the case though, some are wondering if WB is ready to work with him again, and his replacement Grindelwald has some thoughts.

As per Deadline, Mikkelsen was asked about replacing Depp in the franchise, and whether there is room for Depp to make some kind of comeback. Mikkelsen explained:

“Obviously, well, now the course has changed—he won the suit, the court [case]—so let’s see if he comes back. He might. I’m a big fan of Johnny. I think he’s an amazing actor, I think he did a fantastic job.”

While the first movie did have Colin Farrell morphing into Johnny Depp in the end, we don’t really have an explanation for Mikkelsen in the third movie. If anything, a lot of fans think that Mikkelsen does a better job as the evil wizard character, and Depp could use some kind of break from all this drama before he starts going back on the big screen again.

Mikkelsen does say that he feels there is a lot of support for Depp after he was forced to leave the role. He continues, “…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.”

For now, it’s unsure whether a fourth Fantastic Beasts film should happen, but they did announce five films were planned when the movies were just starting out. If they do push forward, I do hope that Mikkelsen stays onboard, but I wouldn’t mind some kind of explanation as to why Grindelwald stopped looking like Johnny Depp.

No release date has been announced for a fourth Fantastic Beasts film.