Originally published November 1, 2016. Updated April 16, 2018.
We’re still a couple of weeks away from the release of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, but we now have our first piece of casting news for the second instalment, with Deadline reporting that Johnny Depp is officially joining J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World.
According to the site, Depp’s role is being kept under wraps, but it’s said that he may also make a fleeting appearance in the first movie, which opens on November 18th.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them takes place 70 years before the Harry Potter saga and revolves around the adventures of Newt Scamander, played by Eddie Redmayne. It takes place in New York City, while the second movie will reportedly shift the action to Paris.
SEE ALSO: Ezra Miller gives a Magical History Lesson in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them featurette
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them opens in 1926 as Newt Scamander has just completed a global excursion to find and document an extraordinary array of magical creatures. Arriving in New York for a brief stopover, he might have come and gone without incident…were it not for a No-Maj (American for Muggle) named Jacob, a misplaced magical case, and the escape of some of Newt’s fantastic beasts, which could spell trouble for both the wizarding and No-Maj worlds.
“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” stars Academy Award winner Eddie Redmayne (“The Theory of Everything”), Katherine Waterston (“Steve Jobs,” “Inherent Vice”) as Tina; Tony Award winner Dan Fogler (“The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee”) as Jacob; Alison Sudol (“Dig,” “Transparent”) as Tina’s sister, Queenie; Ezra Miller (“Trainwreck”) as Credence; two-time Oscar nominee Samantha Morton (“In America,” “Sweet and Lowdown”) as Mary Lou; Oscar winner Jon Voight (“Coming Home,” TV’s “Ray Donovan”) as Henry Shaw, Sr.; Ron Perlman (the “Hellboy” films) as Gnarlack; Carmen Ejogo (“Selma”) as Seraphina; Jenn Murray (“Brooklyn”) as Chastity; young newcomer Faith Wood-Blagrove as Modesty; and Colin Farrell (“True Detective”) as Percival Graves.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is set for release on November 18th.
