Johnny Depp has been cast in the sequel to “Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them,” TheWrap has learned.
The “Pirates of the Caribbean” actor will co-star in the second “Harry Potter” spinoff movie with existing leading man Eddie Redmayne, who plays Newt Scamander. Depp’s role is not yet known.
Depp is also set to appear in a cameo in the first installment, which hits theaters in less than three weeks on Nov. 18.
David Yates is set to return as director.
Early tracking on “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” the film, based on the works of J.K. Rowling, is set at $75 million. That’s lower than the opening weekends of all other “Harry Potter” films, but not by much at all, seeing as “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” opened to $77.1 million in 2007.
“Fantastic Beasts” has been expanded from a three-movie franchise to five, author and screenwriter Rowling announced last month.
Set in the same universe as “Harry Potter,” the inaugural “Fantastic Beasts” movie takes place in 1920s New York and stars Redmayne as a British magizoologist who travels to England to hunt for magical creatures.
Some characters from the “Harry Potter” films will be featured in the new movie, including Albus Dumbledore, Grendel and Gellert Grindelwald — though it’s not yet known whether actors from the past series will be reprising their roles.
Other story beats we’ve learned from the upcoming film include: Newt arrives in New York as Percival Graves (Colin Farrell) investigates a collapsed building destroyed by a magical creature. The film opens with several newspaper headlines about Grindelwald attacking wizards.
Farrell and Redmayne are joined onscreen by Katherine Waterston, Jon Voight, Ezra Miller, Zoe Kravitz, Samantha Morton, Dan Fogler and Alison Sudol.
Yates directed the last four “Harry Potter” films. The second film in the “Fantastic Beasts” series will be set in another major world city with different magical creatures.
“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” is based on a book of the same name by Rowling, which was a mock textbook about magical creatures. In the “Harry Potter” series, the book is required reading for Hogwarts students.
Depp is now repped by CAA, but was at UTA when his “Fantastic” deal was made.
Depp has roles in other upcoming films: Fox’s “Murder on the Orient Express,” Disney sequel “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales,” “Labryinth” (about the late rappers Tupak Shakur and Biggie Smalls) and Universal’s “The Invisible Man.”