Johnny Depp dropped from Fantastic Beasts movie franchise over Amber Heard court case

Johnny Depp has been dropped from the Fantastic Beasts film franchise after a damning UK court judgment.

US actor Johnny Depp arrives to attend his libel trial against News Group Newspapers (NGN), at the High Court in London. Picture: Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP

Johnny Depp has been dropped from the Fantastic Beasts film franchise after a damning UK court judgment earlier this week found the actor had repeatedly assaulted his former wife Amber Heard.

In a social media post on Friday, Depp said Warner Bros. had asked him to resign from his role as dark wizard Grindelwald in the Harry Potter adjacent Fantastic Beasts series, a request he said he “respected and agreed to”.

Depp said his announcement came “in light of recent events”.

“I wish to let you know that I have been asked to resign by Warner Bros. from my role as Grindelwald in ‘Fantastic Beasts’ and I have respected and agreed to that request,” Depp said on Instagram.

Johnny Depp, with ex-wife Amber Heard, lost his libel case against the Sun newspaper.

Depp also said he would appeal the decision earlier this week by a British judge to throw out his attempt to sue The Sun newspaper over a 2018 online article labelling the Pirates of the Caribbean star a “wife beater”.

“The surreal judgement of the court in the UK will not change my fight to tell the truth and I confirm that I plan to appeal,” Depp said.

“My resolve remains strong and I intend to prove that the allegations against me are false. My life and career will not be defined by this moment in time.”

Johnny Depp has exited the “Fantastic Beasts” franchise following his failed libel case against The Sun tabloid newspaper for a 2018 article that labeled him a “wife beater.” Depp says the studio requested he leave the role of wizard Gellert Grindelwald.https://t.co/5wQZazhQDE

— AP Entertainment (@APEntertainment) November 6, 2020

After hearing testimony from Depp and ex-wife Amber Heard in the high-profile case, High Court judge Andrew Nicol on Monday said the allegations against Depp were “substantially true.”

In his judgement, Justice Nicol found Depp assaulted Heard on more than 10 occasions, including during a three-day rampage in Queensland in 2015 while he was filming one of the Pirates of the Caribbean films.

As a result of the damning judgement, Warner Bros. executives decided to dump Depp from the third instalment of the Fantastic Beasts franchise.

Johnny Depp in a scene from the movie Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. Picture: Warner Bros/Roadshow Pictures.

The entertainment giant said the movie was still in production but its release would be delayed from November next year to the summer of 2022. The role of Gellert Grindelwald – which Depp has portrayed twice – will be recast, it added.

“We thank Johnny for his work on the films to date,” the studio said in a statement.

Fantastic Beasts, a prequel franchise spun off from the Harry Potter films, has grossed nearly $1.5 billion between 2016′s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and 2018′s Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.

With AP