“I have been asked to resign by Warner Bros Johnny Depp

The “Fantastic Beasts” films will have to discover a new Gellert Grindelwald.

“I want to let you be aware of that I have been requested to resign via Warner Bros. from my position as Grindelwald in Fantastic Beasts and I have revered and agreed to that request,” Mr. Depp wrote on Instagram on Friday.

A spokeswoman for the studio at the back of the famous spinoff films, primarily based on J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, demonstrated on Friday that Mr. Depp would depart the franchise. Mr. Depp performed the function of the darkish wizard who was once the important antagonist of the Fantastic Beasts franchise, the occasions of which befell earlier than the Harry Potter films.  She stated his position would be recast before the 1/3 film, which is now scheduled to be launched in the summer time of 2022.

Mr. Depp’s exit comes days after he misplaced a libel case in opposition to the writer of The Sun, a British tabloid newspaper that posted a 2018 article calling him a “wife beater,” and the paper’s government editor, Dan Wootton. The story had additionally claimed that there was once “overwhelming evidence” that Mr. Depp had assaulted the actress Amber Heard on a couple of activities whilst they have been married.