'Fantastic Beasts' Was Already Dying Before The Johnny Depp Scandal Emerged

Fantastic Beasts 3 was already a cursed child for Warner Bros. way before Johnny Depp's recent trial cast yet more clout on J.K Rowling's fantasy series 

'Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald' (CREDIT: Warner Bros.)

                      by Jack Linsdell

Today, Warner Bros. requested and received Johnny Depp's resignation from their Fantastic Beasts franchise. This all comes days after he lost one of the highest profile libel cases ever to take place in the UK courts, in which he claimed that the Sun had falsely accused him of being a "wife beater" to actress Amber Heard. Of course, the courts ruled against Depp, thus in no uncertain terms proclaiming him to be a domestic abuser to women. That has taken an already troubled actor (whose been plagued by rumours of domestic abuse since 2016 and drug overdoses years prior) and put him right out on the streets. No studio will dare touch him now. 

Anyway, the press have taken his resignation playing Grindelwald in J.K Rowling's "Wizarding World" as a major catastrophe for the upcoming (and currently in pre-production) Fantastic Beasts 3. The truth is that Depp has merely made a long-sinking ship go down quicker. In 2016, Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them was a major success and big hit partly because it was a big-budget prequel to the immensely popular Harry Potter flicks, that brought back series veteran director David Yates amongst others and was directly from the mind of author J.K Rowling. Anyway, cue a massive $234 million domestic cume and a $814 million worldwide, making the Eddie Redmayne-led flick as successful as one of the earlier Harry Potter sequels. In my view, this was always a "one and done" film, and should not have been sequelised. Rather than using the first movie's success as a crutch for announcing a five film movie series (which no one was asking for), Warner Bros. could have continued with the "Wizarding World" brand and told a series of different Harry Potter related stories with lots of new filmmakers and actors getting the play with the IP. 

Instead they brought back all the same cast and crew for 2018's Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (which saw Depp starring as the titular villain for the first time) and had a barely profitable sequel on their hands. An $160 million domestic total and worldwide cume of $655 million would not have been a disaster for any other franchise installment, except this was a) a massive downturn from Fantastic Beasts b) was on an enormous $200 million budget and c) outraged and annoyed fans, critics and audiences alike. Still, Warner Bros. pursued Fantastic Beasts 3, despite Rowling getting herself into deeper water with her transphobic Twitter comments and actor Ezra Miller allegedly being filmed strangling a female fan. Add in Depp's domestic abuse scandal and major disruptions from the pandemic this year and it seems that the Fantastic Beasts series was already on life support after two movies. 

Depp would have been an "added value element" in future Fantastic Beasts movies for sure. However, his commercial impact has never been great for anything outside of his role as Jack Sparrow or headlining the latest Tim Burton fantasy. So, his departure from the series after just one movie (a critical trashed and fan-hated one at that) is not really much of a loss. Heck, the part can be easily recast with a number of well-liked and popular actors, or just given back to Collin Farrell who played Grindelwald in disguise in the first flick. And, his exit may free Warner Bros. from being associated with any claims of domestic abuse, but it certainly doesn't free them from the scandals surrounding Rowling and Miller or the doomed commercial fate of the series for here on in. 

If we put all the external scandals and controversies to one side (none of which have nothing to do with the movies themselves), the Fantastic Beasts series feels like a well-worn t-shirt after two movies. Look, all due respect but Rowling is a better author than screenwriter (yes, the two are different) and director David Yates has helmed every Potter flick since Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix in 2007. It's time for a mix up behind the scenes, giving other filmmakers and screenwriters the chance to play in the Harry Potter sandbox, much like Warner Bros. has done with their DC Films franchise lately. 

Anyway, Depp's scandal and subsequent retirement from the series has not killed or doomed the Fantastic Beasts movies any more than they already were. The fact is that the movies are still deeply stuck in ties of very controversial figures, and the franchise is basically dead critically and commercially after just two movies. When Fantastic Beasts 3 does eventually open in the summer of 2022, we shall see if J.K Rowling can get it right the third time or if HBO Max will be left to conclude an intended for theatrical release series that has been on life support for a long time.