Daniel Radcliffe on Johnny Depp’s Fantastic Beasts casting controversy

“I can see why people are frustrated with the response that they were given from that..."

Harry Potter's Daniel Radcliffe has weighed in on the controversy surrounding Johnny Depp being cast in the spin-off film Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. Viewers saw Johnny Depp make a cameo as Grindelwald in the final moments of 2016's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.  But when domestic violence allegations against Depp made by ex-wife Amber Heard came to light last year, Harry Potter fans wondered whether the actor would be removed from the franchise. Both David Yates, the film's director, and J.K. Rowling have stood by the casting choice - with the author stating she was "genuinely happy" to have him in the role. And now Daniel Radcliffe has weighed in for the first time about the controversy, admitting it's a difficult situation as he wants to support the movie's producers who "gave me a great start in life and an amazing job." He added to Entertainment Weekly:

“I can see why people are frustrated with the response that they were given from that … I’m not saying anything that anybody hasn’t already said — and this is a weird analogy to draw — [but] in the NFL, there are lots of players arrested for smoking weed and there is other people’s behavior that goes way beyond that and it’s tolerated because they’re very famous players."

He went on to mention how Jamie Waylett, who played Vincent Crabbe, was arrested for growing marijuana - which ultimately led to him being unable to return for the final two films. Radcliffe continued:

"I suppose the thing I was struck by was, we did have a guy who was reprimanded for weed on the [original Potter] film, essentially, so obviously what Johnny has been accused of is much greater than that.”

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is scheduled to be released on 16 November 2018.