Fantastic Beasts: Why Johnny Depp Was Cast as Grindelwald

Published Nov 20, 2016

Edward Douglas fell into writing about movies later in life, because he was spending much of his earlier years working in the recording studio with various bands and artists. He's lived in New York City for most of that time, and regularly goes to the movies with any free time, even if it's a movie he's seen before or one that he doesn't necessarily need to write about. He spends an inordinate amount of time at his local repertory theater, the Metrograph, to the point where the entire staff knows where he likes to sit. He is literally the theater's Member #5.

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Last week, when Collider spoke with Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them producerDavid Heyman, we had to ask him about something that was apretty major spoiler for the movie, although there had been rumblings about it for a couple weeks now.

And that is the casting ofJohnny Depp for theFantastic Beasts sequel scheduled for 2018, and that he’ll be playing the evil wizard Gellert Grindelwald. If you’ve seen the new movie than you already know about his cameo in that role, but we wanted to ask Heyman how that came together.

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“It was the end of last year,” Heyman said about the casting of Depp. “We filmed it early this year because of availability. What we wanted was an iconic actor to play Grindelwald, because Grindelwald is an iconic character who has a significant place in this story. His ability to persuade the hearts and minds, to persuade people to follow him is essential to this story.”

“He is dangerous in that way,” he continued. “We were looking for someone who was seductive and could be charming and could be original, who was iconic, who was a great actor; and that's what Johnny Depp is. He can be irresistible. He's powerful. He's created some iconic characters, and not made the obvious choices when doing so. The unpredictability of the choices he makes is part of what makes him so extraordinary and that was very exciting for us. He was the perfect choice for Grindelwald.”

And that’s why you’ll see Depp entering the world ofJ.K. Rowling withFantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, playing a much more significant role in the 2018 sequel.