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It’s official – Mads Mikkelsen has joined the Harry Potter franchise!

The 55-year-old actor will be replacing Johnny Depp as Gellert Grindelwald in the upcoming Fantastic Beasts 3, Warner Bros. announced via IndieWire.

Johnny departed the film franchise after losing his libel case against The Sun earlier this month.

Mads is best known for his roles in the TV show Hannibal and movies Casino Royal and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. He also recently wrapped filming on Chaos Walking opposite Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley.

Fantastic Beasts 3 – also starring Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Ezra Miller, and Jude Law – is currently in production outside of London.

If you missed the news, Johnny is still making a massive salary for the third movie.

Johnny Depp previously lost his legal battle in the UK, where he sued a publishing company for libel after being called a “wife beater” in The Sun.

The 57-year-old actor and his legal team vowed to appeal the decision, but the initial appeal has been denied by a judge as the case doesn’t have “a reasonable prospect of success,” according to Deadline.

PHOTOS: Check out the latest pics of Johnny Depp

Johnny must also pay an initial £628,000 legal costs to The Sun owner News Group Newspapers.

The next step for Johnny is to take the cast to the Court of Appeals.

After Johnny lost the trial, he was asked to step down from his role as Grindelwald in the Fantastic Beasts franchise and a replacement is already rumored to have been found.

Mads Mikkelsen is reacting to the rumor that he is taking over the role of Gellert Grindelwald from Johnny Depp in the third Fantastic Beasts movie.

“Oh, that is on the rumor basis as we speak,” Mads told IGN. “So I know as much as you do from the newspapers. So I’m waiting for that phone call.”

In early November, it was revealed that Mads was in talks to take on the role. Now, it appears as if that may not actually be happening.

We found out that Johnny was being replaced after he was forced to resign after the verdict in his Amber Heard trial.

If you missed the news, Johnny is still making a massive salary for the third movie.

Jude Law is opening up about his co-star Johnny Depp‘s exit from their upcoming movie Fantastic Beasts 3.

Depp was asked by the studio to resign from the film amid the drama happening in his personal life.

“It’s an enormous film, and there are many, many layers to it. It’s probably one of the biggest productions I’ve ever worked on,” Jude told Entertainment Tonight. “And in a situation like this, you defer to the studio. That’s all you can do. Because you have to turn up and play your part.”

“It was unusual for me because, in fact, on this particular role, Johnny had actually only done a day’s filming, I think, on his own,” Jude added. “In a franchise like this, it’s the studio and the company that make the big decisions. And you have to go along with those, because we’re just a member of the team.”

The movie is currently in production and an acclaimed actor is already in talks to play Grindelwald.

Mads Mikkelsen just might be the new Gellert Grindelwald in Fantastic Beasts 3.

Deadline reports that the 54-year-old actor is currently in talks to take over the role from Johnny Depp, who departed the film franchise after losing his libel case against The Sun earlier this month.

Warner Bros. revealed earlier last week that they had asked Johnny to resign after the outcome of his trial was revealed, and he did.

The studio released a statement and said, “Johnny Depp will depart the Fantastic Beasts franchise. We thank Johnny for his work on the films to date. Fantastic Beasts 3 is currently in production, and the role of Gellert Grindelwald will be recast. The film will debut in theaters worldwide in the summer of 2022.”

Many names have been floating around about who would replace Johnny, including Colin Farrell, who was Grindelwald in disguise in the first film, and even Jamie Campbell Bower, who played the young version of Grindelwald in a Harry Potter franchise flashback and the second Fantastic Beasts film.

Mads is best known for his roles in Doctor Strange as Kaecilius, Hannibal and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

He also recently wrapped filming on Chaos Walking opposite Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley.

It was just recently revealed how much Johnny got paid for only working one day on the film. See how much here…

Johnny Depp was asked to resign from his role as Grindelwald in the upcoming movie Fantastic Beasts 3, but a new report claims he’ll still make his full salary.

THR reports that Warner Bros. “will be on the hook for Depp’s full salary, even though he only had shot one scene since production began on September 20 in London.”

Johnny‘s contract for the movie was a “pay-or-play” one that means he gets his full salary, whether the movie is made or not. ScreenRant says that he will make $10 million for the movie.

More details about Johnny‘s resignation from the project were also revealed in the report.

We have the list of the 20 biggest movie star paydays of all time and Johnny is on the list for one of his films.

The third Fantastic Beasts movie has been moved from November 2021 to July 22, 2022 amid the news that Johnny Depp would be recast after he was forced to resign from the movie.

THR is now shedding light on what happened, and everything was “prompted by a U.K. judge dismissing Depp’s defamation claims,” which saw the UK newspaper The Sun calling Depp a “wife beater.” The site added that, “the judge’s ruling makes it a lot easier for news outlets to use similar depictions when referring to Depp’s stormy two-year marriage to actress Amber Heard, creating a PR headache for the studio.”

The studio allegedly wanted to wait until the trial’s decision was handed down before making their final call.

No word yet on who will play the role of Grindelwald in the third film at this time.