Watch Mads Mikkelsen Replace Johnny Depp’s Grindelwald in First Fantastic Beasts Trailer Since Lawsuit

The official trailer for the third installment of the Fantastic Beasts film has dropped, giving fans their first glimpse at Mads Mikkelsen’s Gellert Grindelwald.

Grindelwald was originally portrayed by Johnny Depp in the Harry Potter prequel series but was replaced by Mikkelsen after he was “asked to resign by Warner Bro.” from his role as the dangerous Dark Wizard.

Depp’s resignation came after he lost a libel lawsuit against the U.K. tabloid The Sun, which referred to him as a “wife-beater” while reporting on allegations that he abused his now-ex-wife Amber Heard.

While Depp denied the claims — and continues to do so — in Nov. 2020, Justice Andrew Nicol determined that The Sun provided enough evidence to prove their article was “substantially true,” meaning the judge found calling Depp a “wife-beater” as warranted.

Mikkelsen is featured early on in the first trailer for Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore, showing off a completely revamped look for Grindelwald.

While Depp’s impression of the wizard showed him with a white spiky cut and facial hair to match, Mikkelsen’s take on Grindelwald is far more clean-cut and features the actor with a grey combover.

The trailer goes on to show Eddie Redmayne’s Newt Scamander and Jude Law’s Albus Dumbledore gathering a group of wizards and witches to help save the world from Grindelwald.

“The world as we know it is coming undone; Grindelwald is pulling it apart with hate,” Law’s Dumbledore can be heard saying. “If we’re to defeat him, you’ll have to trust me.”

Depp has spoken out multiple times since the legal loss led to his resignation, complaining that Hollywood has boycotted him in an August interview with  U.K.’s Sunday Times.

Just this Fall, Spain’s San Sebastian International Film Festival presented Depp with its lifetime achievement award, which honors people who have offered “outstanding contributions to the film world” and “will be part of cinema history forever.”

While speaking at a press conference at the event, Depp lamented that cancel culture has gotten “so far out of hand” that “no one is safe.”

“It takes one sentence and there’s no more ground, the carpet has been pulled. It’s not just me that this has happened to, it’s happened to a lot of people. This type of thing has happened to women, men,” he said. “Sadly at a certain point, they begin to think that it’s normal. Or that it’s them. When it’s not.”

Watch above, via YouTube.