Good* news for fans of the Harry Potter franchise, fantastic beasts, and other wizard shit today, as IndieWire reports that the crimes of Grindelwald (which already had their “being played by Johnny Depp” sentence commuted earlier this month) now also no longer include “not being played by Mads Mikkelsen.” WarnerBros has apparently finally pulled the trigger on an admittedly good first-draft casting choice on who to replace the excised Depp with in the franchise, bringing in a beloved weirdo actor who has not, as far as we know, done anything awful lately. (Besides all the awful things he does on camera with startling regularity.)
(*For a value of good that ignores all the other things wrong with the Fantastic Beasts franchise specifically, and Harry Potter in general, including the batshit confusing nature of the second film, and the direct and unshakeable involvement of author J.K. Rowling, who’s, like, quintupled down on her transphobic horseshit at this point.)
Warner Bros. issued a statement today, confirming that the Hannibal and Rogue One star has signed on to give this third incarnation of Gellert Grindelwald his own particular spin on cinematic weirdness. (Colin Ferrell—sort of—played him in the first Fantastic Beasts movie, before Depp took over the role for 2018's Crimes.) Mikkelsen has continued to work fairly regularly despite the ongoing pandemic; he recently filmed a movie (Another Round) about a group of friends who decide to stay permanently drunk, and had a prominent role in 2019's package delivery video game opus Death Stranding. He’ll now be joining the ongoing production of the third Beasts movies, which has yet to pick up its own ridiculous, way-too-long, not-all-that-descriptive subtitle.