Fantastic Beasts: Mads Mikkelsen Reveals How He Took Over For Johnny Depp In The Secrets of Dumbledore

Long before it opened in theaters, the latest installment in the Fantastic Beasts franchise, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, was making headlines. Johnny Depp, who played the role of Gellert Grindelwald in the second film, exited the third in the fall of 2020 in the wake of his libel lawsuit against The Sun newspaper and was later replaced by Mads Mikkelsen. Now, Mikkelsen is speaking out on how he took over for Depp with the role after the film had already begun production, calling it a "chaotic" time.

"It was quite chaotic," Mikkelsen told The Hollywood Reporter. The actor was given two days to decide if he would take on the role. He also said that he then watched the previous two films as well as read the script for Secrets of Dumbledore — though Mikkelsen was clear that he didn't want to try to copy Depp's performance.

"You don't want to copy anything [Depp was] doing — that would be creative suicide. Even if [a role has] been done to perfection, you want to make it your own. But you still have to build some sort of bridge between what came before."

Now that Mikkelsen has built that bridge, the actor is hopeful that there will be more films in the series so that he can further develop his take on the character.

"My reason [Grindelwald wanting a war with muggles] is that something happened to his entire family when he was a child that explains the hate he carries around," Mikkelsen said. "It's a fantastic, detailed, complex universe [Rowling's] created, and I'd love to hear her thoughts on it. I hope I will do more than this one [film]."

The official synopsis for the film is as follows: Set in the 1930s, the story leads up to the Wizarding World's involvement in World War II and will explore the magical communities in Bhutan, Germany and China in addition to previously established locations including Brazil, the United States and United Kingdom. With Grindelwald's (Mads Mikkelsen) power rapidly growing, Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) entrusts Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) and his friends on a mission that will lead to a clash with Grindelwald's army, and will lead Dumbledore to ponder how long he will stay on the sidelines in the approaching war.

In addition to Mikkelsen, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore stars Eddie Redmayne, Jude Law, Ezra Miller, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, William Nadylam, Victoria Yeates, Callum Turner, Poppy Corby-Teuch, Jessica Williams, Richard Coyle, and Maria Fernanda Candido.

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore is in theaters now.