Its official! Mads Mikkelsen will play the role of Dark Wizard Gellert Grindelwald in the third film of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them franchise. He will be taking over from Johnny Depp who was removed from the role after he lost the libel case against a British tabloid that branded him as ‘wife beater’. Depp lost the case in a three-week trial in July against his former wife Amber Heard and the tabloid.
Mikkelsen will join the ensemble cast that includes Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne, Jude Law, Alison Sudol, Dan Fogler, Katherine Waterston, Callum Turner, Ezra Miller, William Nadylam, Poppy Corby-Tuech, Jessica Williams and Victoria Yeates.
It's official https://t.co/IS9yKmx4Em
— Wizarding World (@wizardingworld) November 26, 2020
The film will once again be directed by David Yates and will reunite producers David Heyman, J.K. Rowling, Steve Kloves, Lionel Wigram and Tim Lewis, along with executive producers Neil Blair, Danny Cohen, Josh Berger and Courtenay Valenti. The screenplay is by J.K. Rowling and Steve Kloves.
Mikkelsen, 55, is well known for his role of playing the serial killer Hannibal Lecter in the US television series Hannibal will play Grindelwald in the spinoff film from Harry Potter author JK Rowling. The Fantastic Beasts stories features magizoologist Newt Scamander (played by Eddie Redmayne) in the lead and is based some 60 years prior the Harry Potter films but feature some of the same characters when they were younger.
The third Fantastic Beasts film is currently slated for release July 15, 2022.
(Source: Wizarding World)