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Johnny Depp recalls his response after getting dropped from Fantastic Beasts franchise: ‘F**k you…’
Five years after being removed from the Fantastic Beasts franchise, Johnny Depp spoke about the moment he was asked to walk away — and what it meant to him.
Hollywood actor Johnny Depp has broken his silence on being removed from the Fantastic Beasts franchise nearly five years after it happened—an exit that followed a turbulent period both professionally and personally for the actor. With his return to films as director for Modì, a biopic on artist Amedeo Modigliani, Johnny said he felt he was “shunned, dumped, booted, deep-sixed, cancelled,” by the fraternity following his longdrawn courtroom battle with his ex-wife, actor Amber Heard.
“Listen, they’ve said all kinds of things out there in the world about me, and it doesn’t bother me. I’m not running for office,” he said in an interview with The Telegraph.
Johnny, who first appeared as the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald in 2016’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, became a central figure in the Harry Potter spin-off series. Though his casting initially sparked mixed reactions, he reprised the role for the sequel The Crimes of Grindelwald in 2018 and was set to return for a third installment, The Secrets of Dumbledore. But in November 2020, the 62-year-old was asked by Warner Bros. to step down.
The request came days after he lost a libel case in the UK against The Sun newspaper, which had referred to him as a “wife beater” in reference to abuse allegations made by Amber. The judge ruled that the outlet’s claims were “substantially true.” Although Johnny continued to deny all allegations, the fallout was swift: he was out of the franchise after reportedly shooting just one scene. Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen was later brought in as his replacement.
Recalling the moment he was asked to resign, Johnny said, “It literally stopped in a millisecond, like, while I was doing the movie. They said we’d like you to resign. But what was really in my head was they wanted me to retire.” And when asked what his reaction was? His response was blunt: “F**k you. There’s far too many of me to kill. If you think you can hurt me more than I’ve already been hurt you’re gravely mistaken.”
The third film, which Johnny did not appear in, was widely panned by critics and underperformed at the global box office, grossing just over $400 million—making it the lowest-grossing installment in the Wizarding World franchise. Since then, Warner Bros. has shifted gears, putting Fantastic Beasts on hold while developing a new Harry Potter series for HBO.
