Fantastic Beasts had all the makings of a slam dunk for Warner Bros.: spinning off from the hit Harry Potter series, luring author J.K. Rowling to make her screenwriting debut, casting newly crowned best-actor-Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne, and enlisting David Yates, who helmed the final four Potter films, to direct.
But somewhere between Johnny Depp’s public fall from grace and Vladimir Putin’s comparison of Russia’s plight to Rowling’s cancellation, Fantastic Beasts seemed to take on more baggage than it could carry. As the third film, The Secrets of Dumbledore, arrives in U.S. theaters this Friday, the series has already inspired headlines like Time’s “Just Cancel the Fantastic Beasts Franchise Already” and Entertainment Weekly’s “Fantastic Beasts is now the world’s most problematic movie franchise.”
THE DECLINE OF DEPP
The first scandal that plagued Fantastic Beasts threatens to never end. A second defamation trial between Amber Heard and Depp, who was cast as the villainous Grindelwald to Jude Law’s Dumbledore, began this week in Virginia. Depp is suing Heard for $50 million after she wrote a 2018 Washington Post op-ed in which she said she was a domestic abuse survivor. She is countersuing for $100 million. (Depp sued The Sun’s executive editor and its publisher, News Group Newspapers, for libel after the British tabloid used the term “wife-beater” to describe him in a 2018 headline. He lost the case in 2020.)
Despite his once-legendary box office appeal, Depp’s brief appearance was kept a secret before the release of 2016’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. After the abuse allegations—all of which Depp has denied—first surfaced in mid-2016, it would have been easy enough to recast the actor for the sequel: Grindelwald can easily change appearance and was played by Colin Farrell for most of the first movie. Still, the Fantastic Beasts creative team opted to stand by the star.
“Honestly, there’s an issue at the moment where there’s a lot of people being accused of things, they’re being accused by multiple victims, and it’s compelling and frightening,” Yates told Entertainment Weekly. “With Johnny, it seems to me there was one person who took a pop at him and claimed something. I can only tell you about the man I see every day: He’s full of decency and kindness, and that’s all I see.” Rowling released her own statement of support: “Based on our understanding of the circumstances, the filmmakers and I are not only comfortable sticking with our original casting, but genuinely happy to have Johnny playing a major character in the movies.”
Depp would go on to appear in 2018’s Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald in a larger role, fan outcry be damned. The tide changed, however, when unpleasant details emerged in Depp’s first libel trial and he lost the case, leading him to resign from the franchise at Warner Bros.’ request. As noted by Variety, AT&T had merged with Warner Bros.’ parent company, Time Warner, resulting in a leadership change that had less tolerance for “courting mercurial—but historically popular—talent like Depp.” Warner Bros. publicly thanked Depp for his service, but cast Mads Mikkelsen in the third installment. Depp received his full $16 million salary for the third film nonetheless, after having shot just one scene. A source told Variety that Rowling approved of Depp’s exit, but she has not yet publicly addressed it.
SCANDAL, SHE WROTE
While one controversial figure had been replaced, another would emerge—and it’d be someone the franchise couldn’t as easily slough off. After Fantastic Beasts was first announced in 2013, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Rowling had requested, and been granted, a great deal of creative control: Warner Bros. could not hire someone else to rewrite any of her scripts for the franchise’s films without her approval.
Rowling’s central role in the Harry Potter spin-offs was initially a badge of honor for Warner Bros. As noted by The Hollywood Reporter, the trailer for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them prominently read, “J.K. Rowling invites you,” and the sequel’s trailer boasted her involvement too. However, a December trailer for The Secrets of Dumbledore downplayed Rowling’s role, per THR. Despite being the film’s producer, co-screenwriter, and creator of the source material, her name was barely visible on the credits card.
Between Fantastic Beasts’ 2018 sequel and today, Rowling came under fire for espousing transphobic rhetoric on Twitter, defending herself in a 3,500-word essay that claimed her only goal was protecting cis women. This all prompted some readers to jump ship, and Rowling didn’t help matters when she then wove transphobia into a new book.
Several stars of the Potter franchises denounced the author’s comments, including Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint. Rowling was almost entirely absent from HBO Max’s 20th anniversary Harry Potter reunion special this year, apart from time-stamped archival footage. A source told Entertainment Weekly that Rowling was invited to participate in the reunion, “but her team determined the archived comments from the writer were adequate.”
Redmayne, who has been criticized for portraying a trans woman in 2015’s The Danish Girl, told Variety, “I disagree with Jo’s comments. Trans women are women, trans men are men and nonbinary identities are valid.” Katherine Waterston also pushed back against Rowling’s words, sharing a Guardian article to her Instagram Story with the headline: “Trans women pose no threat to cis women, but we pose a threat to them if we make them outcasts.” Mikkelsen remained mostly diplomatic in a recent interview, telling British GQ, “I don’t know what the solution is. No hateful rhetoric towards either women or trans [people]—that’s a good start.”
The Rowling controversy was heightened by frustration on the part of some fans that the franchise had refused to outright address Dumbledore’s sexuality or his romantic history with Grindelwald. Despite Rowling retroactively revealing that Dumbledore was gay, the character’s sexuality was never explicitly acknowledged in either of the first two Fantastic Beasts films. Instead, Dumbledore and Grindelwald’s dynamic was described as being “like brothers, only closer.” This week Variety reported that six seconds of The Secrets of Dumbledore that referred to the pair's romantic past were excised for its release in China. According to the outlet, Warner Bros. accepted China’s request to cut lines that reportedly included “because I was in love with you” and “the summer Gellert and I fell in love.”
Rowling, who continues to tweet contentious opinions about gender identity, has a cowriter on the third film, Steve Kloves. WarnerMedia and Rowling’s team have issued a joint statement assuring the public that the author's working relationship with Warner Bros. “is more collaborative than ever.”
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT EZRA
The controversy surrounding Rowling didn’t stop her from attending the third film’s premiere late last month. But star Ezra Miller was MIA after being arrested for disorderly conduct and harassment in March following alleged outbursts at a karaoke bar in Hawaii. The actor had reportedly been the subject of 10 recent police calls in the area, and had become belligerent after patrons at the bar began singing “Shallow.” Miller allegedly shouted obscenities, grabbed the microphone from a woman singing, and lunged at a man playing darts. Miller was charged and released on $500 bail the day before the film’s London premiere. TMZ has since spotted Miller dancing at a Hawaii bar.
Rolling Stone reported that “Warner Bros. and DC executives held an emergency impromptu meeting” to address Miller’s fate with the studio, which is also producing the actor’s upcoming superhero film, The Flash (currently slated for 2023). An insider told the outlet that “the consensus in the room was to hit pause on any future projects involving Miller, including possible appearances in the DC Extended Universe.” A source also claimed that Miller had “frequent meltdowns” while filming The Flash, shot just after Fantastic Beasts. (Representatives for Miller and Warner Bros. declined to comment to Rolling Stone.)
This isn’t Miller’s first public scandal. In April 2020, a video of them apparently choking a woman at a bar in Iceland hit social media. The incident didn’t result in any arrests or a comment from Miller, but Variety spoke to a source who confirmed the actor’s appearance in the footage. Insiders told Rolling Stone that the incident “gave Warner Bros. pause at the time,” but no actions were taken. Then this January, Miller posted a since-deleted Instagram video intimidating a North Carolina Ku Klux Klan chapter, urging them to kill themselves with their own guns, or “we’ll do it for you if that’s what you want.”
DISAPPEARING SPELL
Compounding Fantastic Beasts’ woes is the fact that the Harry Potter fandom just doesn’t seem that into it anyway. In 2018, Grindelwald opened to $62.2 million domestically, more than $10 million less than the first film’s debut, and received lackluster notices. As Vanity Fair’s Richard Lawson wrote, the film “marks the landmark moment when, alas, the magic finally flickers out.” According to Variety, the first two Fantastic Beasts films made nearly 75% of their profit from global sales. But even that silver lining is diminished by the ongoing pandemic. The Secrets of Dumbledore makes its domestic debut on April 15, but it has already bowed in China amidst COVID-19 lockdowns that have shuttered about 54% of the country’s movie theaters. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film earned just $9.7 million there in its debut weekend. By way of comparison, the first Fantastic Beasts opened to $40.4 million in China, while the sequel debuted to $36.6 million.
As Warner Bros. awaits the Fantastic Beasts domestic box office haul, what was once touted as a five-film franchise has yet to announce a fourth installment. “We haven’t yet started writing,” producer David Heyman recently confirmed. One thing is for certain: The Secrets of Dumbledore will have to make a cultural splash of a different kind if the series has any chance of staying afloat.
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