Mads Mikkelsen says replacing Johnny Depp in Fantastic Beasts was ‘chaotic’

Danish actor was given two days to decide if he wanted the role of Grindelwald

Mads Mikkelsen has spoken about taking over from Johnny Depp in the Fantastic Beasts franchise, calling the process “chaotic”.

Mikkelsen, who plays the role of evil wizard Gellert Grindelwald in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, replacing Depp in the role, spoke to Hollywood Reporter about the part.

The Danish actor watched the first two Fantastic Beasts films in quick sucession before reading the script for Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore. He was given two days to decide if he wanted the role. “It was quite chaotic,” he commented.

Mikkelsen also noted that previous reports about him wishing he could have spoken to Depp before appearing in the film have been overplayed. “I wasn’t like, ‘Oh please let me talk to him,’ ” he said. “It would have been great to touch bases, ‘clean the room’ in a sense. Maybe I’ll see him in the future.”

He again said that he refused to copy Depp’s own performance, saying that to do so “would be creative suicide”.

When it came to approaching the part, he commented: “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.”

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore is out in UK cinemas now with a US release set for 15 April.