Johnny Depp has finally spoken about being asked to leave the Harry Potter spin-off series Fantastic Beasts due to accusations of domestic abuse made against him almost five years after the incident.
Depp joined the franchise in 2016
The 62-year-old actor first appeared in the Harry Potter franchise in the 2016 spin-off movie Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and then returned for the 2018 sequel, The Crimes of Grindelwald.
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But while he was meant to return as Grindelwald in the 2022 movie The Secrets of Dumbledore, he was asked to step down from the role.
He was asked to leave in 2020
In November of 2020, Depp was asked by Warner Bros. to step down from the role.
His character was later recast to Mads Mikkelsen for the final movie in the Fantastic Beasts trilogy.
He was embroiled in accusations back then
At the time, Depp was part of a messy and widely-broadcast legal battle with his now ex-wife and actress Amber Heard. He was facing allegations of domestic abuse.
Depp announced that he was asked to ‘resign’, writing on Instagram at the time, “I have respected and agreed to that request,” as Warner Bros. thanked him for his work in the first two films.
But he has now spoken out about the aftermath
Now, five years later, the veteran actor has spoken out about the aftermath of the widely-broadcast legal battles.
In a recent interview with The Telegraph, Depp said he felt “shunned, dumped, booted, deep-sixed, cancelled – however you want to define it.”
Depp addressed what happened after the legal battles
The actor addressed the discourse around him following the trials, saying, “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.”
He said he was asked to leave mid-filming
Talking about his recasting in Fantastic Beasts, Depp had some harsh words about Warner Bros.
“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,” Depp said.
Depp had some strong words for Warner Bros.
Sharing what his response was to his recasting at the time, Depp reflected, “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.”
He went into legal battles with Heard and some news outlets
Depp was involved in legal battles with Heard who accused him of domestic abuse, and in 2020, he sued The Sun for dubbing him a ‘wife beater’, a case he lost in the British court.
He also sued The Washington Post in 2022 for defamation after Heard wrote an op-ed that mentioned ‘sexual violence’ and ‘domestic abuse’, although she never mentioned his name.
