J.K. Rowling, 'Fantastic Beasts...' team defend Depp's casting

With actor Johnny Depp portraying Gellert Grindelwald in "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them", a lot of fans slammed the movie makers and author J.K. Rowling. However, Rowling has assured fans that Depp was the right choice for the role.

Upon watching "Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them", fans took to Twitter to complain about Depp's appearance as the dark wizard, which is unveiled in the last minutes of the movie.

Assuring that Depp is the right one to portray Grindelwald, Rowling, who has co-produced and written the film, said she was "delighted" by Depp's casting as the dark wizard and that "he's done incredible things with the character", reports people.com.

Fans said that Depp's pale-face make-up and his bleach-blonde hair looked similar to his comedic characters in movies like "The Lone Ranger", "Alice in Wonderland" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory".

Also defending Depp's casting, producer David Heyman earlier said: "He's iconic."

"He's an iconic actor and we needed an iconic actor to play this part. Johnny's created two or three iconic people, people who are unforgettable. He makes choices, and that was really, really important."

"Johnny can do that. He was an absolute pleasure to work with," Heyman said.

Director David Yates asked fans "to trust" the team behind "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them".

"What you have to remember about Johnny is that extraordinary talent and that talent never goes away. He's a huge Harry Potter fan. He loves the world. He was beyond excited about working on this material. In fact, he didn't even want to see a script, he just said 'I'm in'," Yates said.

The film released in India on November 18.

--IANS

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