Caffeinated Clint
Don’t sweat your soggy Levi’s if you were left shrug-shouldered by Eddie Redmayne’s Newt Scamender in “Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them” – sounds like the critter-collector might be taking a backseat to, er, Johnny Depp in the sequel.
After the slightly disappointing numbers “Fantastic Beasts” made on the weekend, no surprise to hear (though the plan was probably already afoot, considering that cameo at the end of the film) the Warner brass are going to retool further chapters in the series to more resemble their sure-thing “Harry Potter” franchise. If anything, the prequel series will soon be less it’s own thing and more Diet Harry Potter, with speculation that the next film in the sequel will fix largely on characters from the “Potter” series of films instead of the aforementioned Scamender.
And one of those characters is, of course, played by none other than the franchise king himself, Johnny ‘shit your stuff is stale, dude’ Depp.
Director David Yates tells Cinema Blend that while Redmayne’s character will still be a part of the franchise, he’s likely going to be a supporting character from hereon out.
“I don’t think [Newt will be at] the heart of all of them,” Heyman said. “I think he’ll be part — so will Tina, Queenie and Jacob — will be part of the next one.”
Apparently the next chapter will fix on a young Dumbledore, as well as “Credence and Grindelwald. I think they will be the main players.”
Johnny Depp plays Grindelwald, and Ezra Miller plays Credence. Dumbledore is currently being cast.
It makes sense for Dumbledore to be involved in the series. Though better known as the headmaster of Hogwarts, the bearded magic-man was previously the Transfiguration teacher. He was also a childhood friend of Grindelwald, and the two once schemed to snare all of the Deathly Hallows. Much like Obi-Wan and Anakin, the two parted ways- one got a lifetime membership with the goodie camp, one joined the baddie camp.
All good news for fans of “Potter” but.. Depp? I personally think, after the whole sneaking-in-dogs-to-Australia incident, let alone his public skuffles with ex Amber Heard, we’re all a little sick of Edward Scissorhands at the moment. It also doesn’t help, of course, that he stopped doing quality, artsy pieces for high-paying cash-grabs like “Pirates of the Caribbean 5 : Tommy Hansen goes undercover as a drunk bogan”. Someone needs to put Depp on pause for a while, make us miss him, before throwing him back in our faces every couple of months. Heck, why couldn’t Colin Farrell have stuck around for these “Fantastic Beasts” sequels? Sure, he’s not the name that Depp is (or was), but his films seem to make about the same as Depp’s do these days. Did Warner actually look at the returns on “Mortedaci” and “The Tourist” before deciding Depp would be a worthy drawcard for their “Fantastic Beasts” franchise?
