This eerie new deepfake video replaces Johnny Depp’s Grindelwald in Fantastic Beasts 2 with Mads Mikkelsen. And as hard as it might still be to admit it, his facial expressions do seem to capture the treacherous villain perfectly.
It’s been almost a month since Warner Bros. announced that they were replacing the Pirates of the Caribbean star in the upcoming threequel in the Fantastic Beasts film series. This was done in the wake of Depp’s court ruling, in which he lost his libel action against The Sun, the British outlet that had called him a “wife beater” in a 2018 article. As for the Wizarding World’s spinoff, the company apparently thought that keeping the American thespian around wouldn’t serve the movie well in the long run.
But despite the bad blood between Depp and his former wife Amber Heard, and all the drama and controversy surrounding this messy court feud, not to mention the overwhelming fan rage on social media platforms, production has to continue on the upcoming Fantastic Beasts 3. As such, WB was quick to reveal the person who’d take up the mantle. And while the choice would’ve been controversial regardless of the actor who took over, we can’t help but imagine what Mads Mikkelsen is going to do with the role.
I mean, simply based on the video above, he could end up portraying an even more menacing Grindelwald than Johnny Depp. Now, imagine what the performance would sound and look like with his looming deep voice. It’s a pity that we can’t imitate that quite yet, but it’ll definitely give Fantastic Beasts fans something to look forward to.
For better or for worse, I guess we’ll have to accept the Hannibal star as the new Grindelwald, but what do you think about his casting? And do you believe that he can do a better job than Depp? Sound off below in the comments section.