Johnny Depp Is Playing Dumbledore’s First Crush In “Fantastic Beasts 2”
And that’s what the back of his head looks like. Judging by that teaser shot, Johnny Depp’s character is someone who might show up on an Ancestry.com search made by Macklemore.
Last week we learned that Johnny Depp would be bringing his charismatic griminess to the sequel of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which is a prequel to the Harry Potter films. Now we can stamp TRUE on the rumor that Johnny Depp would be playing Gellert Grindelwald, and that he’ll be playing opposite a young Albus Dumbledore.
Fantastic Beasts director David Yates confirmed the news during a conversation with The Leaky Cauldron (via Vanity Fair). Yates says they chose to cast Johnny Depp as the dark wizard and one-time crush of a pre-Professor Albus Dumbledore because they wanted to see how Johnny Depp-y he’d get with it.
“Johnny Depp is a real artist. He’s created several characters who have really resonated in our popular culture. He’s a really brilliant, brilliant actor. We were excited about seeing what he would do with this guy, the character. He’s fearless; he’s imaginative; he’s ambitious. We thought he would do something fun and special. So we went for him, purely on that selfish basis. We don’t care if he’s famous or not famous. We just know he’s interesting.”
It’s not known yet who would be playing Dumbledore. Old Dumbledore was played in two Harry Potter films by Richard Harris, then replaced after his death by Michael Gambon. We got to see a bit of Lil’ Dumbledore in flashbacks in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
J.K. Rowling admitted way way back that Dumbledore was gay, but he kind of threw himself into a closet at Hogwarts after his first true love Gellert Grindelwald went to the dark side and started using his powers for evil. Fantastic Beasts 2 will explore the relationship between Gellert and Dumbledore. It’s too bad we already know how it ends, because it’s going to be frustrating as hell watching Dumbledore chase after a sleazy bad boy wizard who you know makes dudes guess how long his “wand” is. I can already see people getting kicked out of the theater for screaming “Dumbledore, NO! You need to lovium yourselfa more!”
Pic: Hypable