Mads Mikkelsen, who will replace Johnny Depp as Gellert Grindelwald in the next Fantastic Beasts film, has spoken about what he expects the difficulties of taking on the role will be. Talking to Entertainment Weekly, Mikkelsen was asked how his take on the dark wizard would be different to Depp’s portrayal. "Well it's going to be me, so that's a difference," he joked. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/11/06/johnny-depp-exits-fantastic-beasts"] Answering seriously, Mikkelsen said: “This is the tricky part. We're still working it out. There has to be a bridge between what Johnny did and what I'm going to do. And at the same time, I also have to make it my own. But also we have to find a few links [to the previous version of the character] and some bridges so it doesn't completely detach from what he's already masterfully achieved." Mikkelsen will, technically speaking, be the third actor to play Grindelwald; Colin Farrell took the role for the first movie, albeit as ‘Percival Graves’, an alter-ego for Grindelwald achieved through transfiguration magic. After being unmasked, Depp played the ‘real’ version of Grindelwald for the second film. It remains to be seen how the third installment will deal with the change, but the Wizarding World series does, of course, have the handy get-out clause of magic to fall back on. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=actors-who-were-replaced-during-production&captions=true"] Depp resigned from the role of Grindelwald after losing a libel case against News Group Newspapers regarding allegations of abuse between he and former wife, Amber Heard. The case found the allegations of domestic violence committed by him to be “substantially true”. Following the outcome he resigned from the role in the Harry Potter prequel series, and has since been replaced by Hannibal, Doctor Strange, and Casino Royale star Mikkelsen. Not much is known about the rest of Fantastic Beasts 3. Production was put on hold due to COVID-19 earlier in the year, and it will have ‘epic battles’ apparently, but little else has been made public. It is currently set for release in July 2022. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer.
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