Johnny Depp is opening up about the moment he says Warner Bros. asked him to step away from the Fantastic Beasts franchise, and his reaction wasn’t polite.
In a recent interview with The Telegraph, Depp said the studio’s request came abruptly while he was working on the third film. He claimed it “stopped in a millisecond,” and that what he heard underneath the resignation request was: they wanted him to retire.
Depp said his immediate internal response was a blunt expletive, often printed as “F— you,” and he added that he felt there were “far too many” versions of him to be “killed” by public backlash, suggesting he believed he’d already absorbed the worst of the damage.
The exit dates back to 2020, after Depp lost a U.K. libel case involving The Sun; shortly afterward, Warner Bros. announced he would depart the franchise. Depp played Gellert Grindelwald in the first two films, and the role was recast with Mads Mikkelsen for 2022’s Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore.
While Depp has largely kept his comments about the franchise brief over the years, he’s now framing the recasting as the most painful professional consequence of the larger controversy around his personal legal battles. He also reiterated that he doesn’t regret pursuing the cases, brushing off public opinion with a line that he’s “not running for office.”
