Johnny Depp finally addresses Fantastic Beasts 'recast' amid domestic abuse accusations

Johnny Depp has finally broken his silence about the Fantastic Beasts 'recast' amid domestic abuse accusations.

The 62-year-old veteran Hollywood actor who brought to life the infamous dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald in the franchise has opened up about being kicked out of the Harry Potter spin-off series almost five years after the incident.

Depp first appeared in the Wizarding World in the first 2018 movie, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and returned for the 2018 sequel, The Crimes of Grindelwald.

The Golden Globe Award winner was earmarked to return as Grindelwald in the 2023 film, The Secrets of Dumbledore, but instead was asked to step down in November 2020 by Warner Bros. and the role was re-cast to Mads Mikkelsen for the third and final instalment of the trilogy.

Depp has revealed what happened (Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images for The Red Sea International Film Festival)

In case you missed it, at the time Depp was embroiled in a rather messy libel case that the actor had brought against News Group Newspapers Ltd in relation to allegations of domestic abuse from ex-wife Amber Heard.

While JK Rowling, director David Yates and Warner Bros seemed to assure fans that they were 'comfortable sticking with our original casting' and were 'genuinely happy to have Johnny playing a major character in the movies', three years later the actor announced on Instagram that he was asked to 'resign.'

“I have respected and agreed to that request,” he wrote at the time while Warner Bros. thanked him 'for his work on the films.'

Now, Depp has spoken out about the aftermath of the high-profile trials and the impact they had on his career, revealing in a tell-all interview with The Telegraph that he felt 'shunned, dumped, booted, deep-sixed, cancelled – however you want to define it.'

Depp played Grindelwald in the first two movies (Warner Bros.)

As for his apparent fall out with Warner Bros., he said he was asked to resign from the Fantastic Beasts movies, and had some pretty choice words to say about how it went down.

"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. 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.

When asked what his response was to giving up Grindelwald at the time, he 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.”

Depp, who tied the knot with Heard in 2015 before going their separate ways just 15 months later, sued The Sun in 2020 for an article that dubbed him a 'wife beater', which he lost in the British court.

Depp in his Virginia court trial (STEVE HELBER/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Then across the Atlantic in Virginia in 2022, Depp brought successfully sued The Washington Post for defamation after Heard wrote an op-ed that referred to 'sexual violence' and 'domestic abuse', although she didn't name Depp.

He told The Telegraph he decided to fight the allegations in court because 'had I not then I wouldn't have been me'.

"Of course everyone tells you, ‘Don’t do it. You’re crazy'," he continued, but revealed he decided to as it could've been 'the deciding factor of whether or not I have the capability of making movies in Hollywood'.

Now clearly making a break from his past and doing exactly that, Depp has since been busy directing the movie, Modìgliani: Three Days on the Wing of Madness, which will hit screens on Friday, July 11.