Warner Bros. announced on Wednesday (November 25) that Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen will play Dark Wizard Gellert Grindelwald in the third Fantastic Beasts film, replacing Johnny Depp.

The latest installment in the series is now in development at Warner Bros Studios Leavesden, which is located outside of London. Following Depp’s departure, the studio rescheduled the film for July 15, 2022.

According to previous reports, Mikkelsen was director David Yates’ chosen replacement for Depp and was “in talks” to play Grindelwald.

Mikkelsen (Hannibal, Casino Royale, and Doctor Strange) will co-star with Jude Law as a teenage Albus Dumbledore, Eddie Redmayne as magizoologist Newt Scamander, Alison Sudol and Katherine Waterston as sisters Queenie and Tina Goldstein, and Dan Fogler as Jacob Kowalski, a ‘No-Maj’. Callum Turner, Ezra Miller, William Nadylam, Poppy Corby-Tuech, Jessica Williams, and Victoria Yeates will all return in the third film.

The film reunites director David Yates and producers David Heyman, J.K. Rowling, Steve Kloves, Lionel Wigram, and Tim Lewis, who previously worked together on the “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” and “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” films in the series. Executive producers include Neil Blair, Danny Cohen, Josh Berger, and Courtenay Valenti. J.K. Rowling and Steve Kloves are the screenwriters. The third part will be distributed internationally by Warner Bros. Pictures. In Denmark, Mikkelsen is represented by UTA and Art Management.

At the end of the 2016 film, Johnny Depp made his debut as the “Fantastic Beasts” franchise’s main villain, and he returned in a considerably larger role for the 2018 sequel “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.”

The news comes after Johnny Depp resigned after Warner Bros. asked him to leave after he lost a libel case against UK newspaper The Sun. In addition, the actor has been ordered to pay The Sun over £630,000 in legal expenses related to the lawsuit. Following charges of domestic abuse from ex-wife Amber Heard, Depp sued the tabloid to court over a story labelling him a “wife beater.”   Depp lost when the judge determined that he had beaten his ex-wife Amber Heard.

The judge ruled in favor of the publication. Depp was reportedly asked to quit the project after only one day of production — he was paid for the whole film but had a five-picture commitment — and Warner Bros. has been scrambling to find a replacement ever since. Mikkelsen was most recently seen in Doug Liman’s Chaos Walking.