The Warner Bros. casting department has been suffering a lot more headaches than usual after three of the stars from two of their biggest franchises found themselves in the headlines for all the wrong reasons, leading to much speculation that a widespread reshuffle could be on the cards depending on whether or not the respective furors died down by the time cameras started rolling.
As the main villain in the Fantastic Beasts series and the female lead in Aquaman, which is the studio’s second highest-grossing movie ever, Johnny Depp and Amber Heard both have integral roles in their respective properties, but the warring ex-spouses have constantly been in the news for their increasingly messy legal battles that have devolved into public mud-slinging in recent months.
For instance, Depp asked for his latest trial to be delayed so that he could shoot Fantastic Beasts 3, something Heard took issue with, despite the fact that she’ll soon be required to suit up and head to the set of Aquaman 2, even though there were calls to have her replaced after many seemed to definitively side with the former Pirates of the Caribbean star.
Ezra Miller was also the subject of bad press after a video surfaced of him choking out a female fan, which saw the actor come close to being dropped from both Fantastic Beasts and The Flash, but insider Grace Randolph now claims that all three of them are definitely locked in for the upcoming sequels. However, the catch is that the productions are being designed and shot in a way that means Depp and Heard’s roles, at least, can be reduced if necessary, depending on how many more twists are still to come in their messy legal hearings.
Taking to Twitter, here’s what she had to share:
One more ☕️ post for today:#EzraMiller & #JohnnyDepp are definitely in #FantasticBeasts3#AmberHeard is definitely in #Aquaman2
HOWEVER they are shooting so that Depp & Heard’s roles can be decreased if bad press…
Also new female character will be in #Aquaman2#DC #DCEU pic.twitter.com/9l2FbiJq94
— Grace Randolph (@GraceRandolph) October 17, 2020
So, things still seem to be a bit up in the air now for Johnny Depp and how big of a part he’ll have in Fantastic Beasts 3, but it seems like WB is keeping things open in terms of what they can do with the actor and it’ll be interesting to see which route they ultimately head down.
