Johnny Depp Gets Candid About Being Fired From FANTASTIC BEASTS: “F* You. There’s Far Too Many of Me to Kill"
Johnny Depp has finally opened up more directly about his abrupt firing from the Fantastic Beasts franchise, and he’s not sugarcoating it.
The actor famously portrayed dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and its sequel The Crimes of Grindelwald, before being ousted from the third film in the middle of an intense and very public legal battle with his ex-wife, Amber Heard.
While the studio never released a detailed explanation, Warner Bros. replaced Depp with Mads Mikkelsen for The Secrets of Dumbledore, a move that sparked backlash from Depp supporters and left the film creatively and commercially unsteady.
Now, speaking with The Telegraph, Depp shed more light on how it all went down. And his comments are blunt.
“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. 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.”
When asked how he felt in that moment, Depp said:
“F*** 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.”
Depp had only filmed a single scene for the third film before being asked to walk away. While Mikkelsen delivered a strong performance as Grindelwald, the sudden switch was jarring for many fans, and it didn’t help The Secrets of Dumbledore, which stumbled at the box office, pulling in just $407 million globally on a $200 million budget. That soft performance, along with the controversy and declining interest, effectively shelved the entire Fantastic Beasts franchise.
Depp, meanwhile, has stayed mostly away from blockbuster territory since, though rumors continue to swirl about a possible return to the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, a move that could redefine his place in Hollywood.
For now, Depp seems at peace with what happened, but not without some scars, and certainly no apologies.