Mads Mikkelsen praises 'amazing' Johnny Depp after replacing shamed acto...

Mads Mikkelsen praises 'amazing' Johnny Depp after replacing shamed actor in Fantastic Beasts.

"Now that he's won the case, he may came back," says Mads Mikkelsen, who was cast as Newt Scamander's replacement in Fantastic Beasts during Johnny Depp's legal struggle with Amber Heard, before the latter was exonerated.

Mads Mikkelsen has suggested that Johnny Depp, who recently won a legal battle with ex-wife Amber Heard, is a "great performer" and that he may return to the Fantastic Beasts film trilogy.

Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen, 56, who is most known for his appearances in Casino Royale and Hannibal on NBC, has taken over for Johnny, 59, in the part of Gellert Grindelwald in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore.

When Johnny was denied leave to appeal the High Court's libel ruling that determined a story that he abused ex-wife Amber Heard to be'substantially true,' Warner Bros. fired him a week into production of the film set for release in 2020.

According to Deadline's article from the Sarajevo Picture Festival, Mads said that stepping into Johnny's shoes was "extremely daunting," and that Johnny's departure from the film was due to his libel action against his ex-wife.

After then, Mads said, "Having stated that, I could not copy it. It's so obviously his style that there was no way I could replicate it. That would be like shooting yourself in the creative foot.

So we had to think of something else, something that was uniquely my, in order to bring us closer together. As a result, sure, it was frightening.

'His admirers were incredibly kind, but they were also incredibly obstinate. Though I didn't spend much time with them, I could see why they were hurting within.

A judge at the High Court in London determined in 2020 that The Sun's portrayal of Johnny as a "wife beater" was "basically true," and Johnny lost his libel action against the newspaper.

Two years later, in 2020, Johnny filed a $50 million lawsuit against Amber, claiming that she defamed him in an op-ed piece she wrote for the Washington Post in 2018, in which she described herself as a survivor of domestic abuse

Amber, now 35, filed a $100 million countersuit against Johnny and his attorney Adam Waldman, alleging that Waldman had defamed her by labeling her allegations a "hoax."

As a result of the allegations, the actor's representatives claim, he has been unable to secure any new high-profile parts or acting gigs, including being removed from the Pirates of the Caribbean film series.

After a six week trial, the jury decided in his favor.

The film Modi, about the Italian painter and sculptor Amedeo Modigliani, will be Johnny's first feature film as director in 25 years.

He'll be working on the film's production team alongside Al Pacino.