Mads Mikkelsen made his Wizarding World franchise debut in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore earlier this year, replacing Johnny Depp in the role of Gellert Grindelwald. The former Pirates of the Caribbean star was let go by Warner Bros. from the project during its filming in late 2020 after losing his UK libel case. However, it looks like there's a possibility that he will return to the role according to Mikkelsen himself.
As reported by Deadline, while being honored with the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo Award at the Sarajevo Film Festival, Mikkelsen was asked in an interview about his experience replacing Depp in Fantastic Beasts: The Secret of Dumbledore which he admitted was "intimidating." However, he also hinted that the actor might come back to the role after winning his highly-publicized court case against Amber Heard.
"It was very intimidating. Obviously, well, now the course has changed—he won the suit, the court [case]—so let’s see if he comes back. He might," Mikkelsen said. "I’m a big fan of Johnny. I think he’s an amazing actor, I think he did a fantastic job. Having said that, I could not copy it."
He continued, "There’s there was no way I could just copy it, because it’s so much him. It would be creative suicide. So, we had to come up with something else, something that was mine, and build a bridge between him and me. So, yes, 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."
Considering that Depp has now been attached to numerous film projects following his court case victory a few months ago, it is not unlikely at this point to see the actor return to play Grindewald again and it seems like Mikkelsen doesn't mind the idea based on his comments.
Obviously, it will all still depend if Warner Bros. is willing to work with Depp again after all the legal issues surrounding the actor in the past few years. In addition, the studio has also not given a greenlight yet for a fourth Fantastic Beasts film so it is hard to tell at this point whether we can actually see Depp come back in the role or they decide to have Mikkelsen remain instead.
For now, everything still lies in whether Warner Bros. still wants to continue the Fantastic Beasts franchise after the disappointing box office results of the third film.
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