Johnny Depp has left the cast of the Fantastic Beasts franchise, the actor and Warner Bros. studio announced separately on Friday. Depp played the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald in the first two film adaptations of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter prequel series.
Posted to Instagram on Friday, Depp wrote that the studio behind Fantastic Beasts, Warner Bros., had requested his resignation. He wrote in part: "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."
The news comes days after the actor lost a high-profile libel case in the U.K. against the tabloid publication The Sun, which had published an article in 2018 about Depp's relationship with his ex-spouse Amber Heard. In that piece, the tabloid alleged that Depp was a "wife beater." In the British court case decided Monday, the judge found that what The Sun had published was substantially true, and that 12 of Heard's 14 allegations about episodes of physical assault were supportable. This was not a criminal trial against Depp. —NPR
