The panel for Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes for Grindelwald gave us all a few surprises at Comic-Con this year. Not only did they release a super exciting trailer, but Johnny Depp appeared in character too. That’s not it- there were some heated political comments and remarks as well.
When the cast of this Harry Potter prequel was asked what they would do if they had magical powers in reality, Johnny Depp’s costar had a brilliant response. Zoe Kravitz shouted that he would impeach President Trump. he even added that,
I’ll take impeachment, but we could go further than that.
Everyone across the room cheered. But later a tweet showed that not everybody enjoyed the joke. A guy tweeted saying,
FANTASTIC BEASTS cast says they’d use real-life magic to impeach Trump. Joke about impeachment spells. Guy behind me is PISSED. “They had to ruin it.”
There’s more to the picture. The cast even had a spell ready to impeach Trump. When asked about it, Dan Fogler said that it would be ‘Impeachius Maximus!’ Looks like everyone had something political to say that day. Fellow star Ezra Miller added on the question saying ‘Smash the patriarchy’.
Once this was over, Johnny Depp who is playing Gellert Grindelwald made an appearance. Even though he was not on the panel, Depp was in character. Being the dark wizard that Johnny Depp is playing in the movie, his speech had a political twist to it. Despite the fact that his character aims to establish supremacy over non-magical people considered to be inferiors, Depp’s speech had a whole new turn. He declared that,
We who live for freedom or truth, the moment has come to rise up and take our rightful place in the world.
Eddie Redmayne, another star in Fantastic Beasts has also drawn a comparison between Trump and Gellert Grindelwald’s role in the wizarding world. He shared that,
I’m enlisted by Dumbledore (Jude Law) to try and track him down and capture him. What’s happened is Grindelwald’s belief that pure-bloods should reign over all non-magical beings is a political thing. He’s rallying more and more people and it causes divisions across families. He’s pretty hypnotic.
Even though Johnny Depp has been an ultimate favorite most of times, lately his personal stories are affecting what people think of his casting in the movie. Stores of Depp conducting domestic violence against his ex-wife Amber Heard are rolling in media. Harry Potter author, JK Rowling herself commented on Depp’s casting and all related controversies. She posted on her website saying that,
When Johnny Depp was cast as Grindelwald, I thought he’d be wonderful in the role. However, around the time of filming his cameo in the first movie, stories had appeared in the press that deeply concerned me and everyone most closely involved in the franchise.The agreements that have been put in place to protect the privacy of two people, both of whom have expressed a desire to get on with their lives, must be respected. 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.
It would be safe to say that most of share this opinion. The audience in the Comic-Con hall went crazy when Johnny Depp appeared in costume.