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Depp, 53, one of Hollywood's top actors and box office draws,
will co-star in the 2018 sequel to "Fantastic Beasts," due out
in theaters on Nov. 18, Deadline.com, The Hollywood Reporter and
Variety said, citing unnamed sources.
The reports also said Depp will make a cameo in the first film,
but did not reveal what part he will play.
Time Warner Inc-owned Warner Bros studios did not formally
announce Depp's casting, and a representative for the studio did
not immediately return requests for comment.
Little is known about the plot of "Fantastic Beasts," which
stars Oscar-winner Eddie Redmayne with a screenplay by Rowling,
featuring new characters, story and set in New York in 1926,
long preceding the "Harry Potter" books and films, which were
set in England in the 1990s.
Rowling revealed earlier this month that "Fantastic Beasts" will
be the first of five new movies set in her wizarding world.
The new franchise will trace the rise of a powerful wizard named
Gellert Grindelwald and his eventual 1945 duel with Albus
Dumbledore, the popular wizard headmaster from the Potter
stories.
Rowling's seven-book "Harry Potter" series sold more than 450
million copies worldwide, and the film franchise, which ended in
2011 with "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2," took
in more than $7 billion at the global box office.
Depp leads Disney's hit franchise "Pirates of the Caribbean," in
which he plays Captain Jack Sparrow, and "Alice in Wonderland,"
in which he plays the Mad Hatter. He is known for often playing
eccentric, unpredictable and off-kilter characters.
(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
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