Welcome to Harry Potter Theory. Today we're discussing the Fantastic Beasts films. Specifically- the performance of Grindelwald by actor's Johnny Depp and Mads Mikkelsen.
Now, when the Fantastic Beasts films first hit theatres, in spite of our awareness of Grindelwald’s presence, we were all (at first) under the impression that the main antagonist was going to be Percival Graves, played by Colin Farrell. However, towards the end of the film it is revealed that Percival Graves was actually Gellert Grindelwald, played by Johnny Depp, in disguise. With that said, we only witness Depp’s Grindelwald for a very brief period in this film. After the first film had ended and Grindelwald’s true identity had been revealed, Depp ended up reprising his role as Grindelwald in 2018s Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. In this film, we got much more of a look in to Depp’s portrayal of the famous dark wizard, and I certainly wasn’t disappointed.