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The A-list actor, writing on Instagram, said
that AT&T Inc's <T.N> Warner Bros movie studio had asked him to
leave his role as villain Gellert Grindelwald. "I have respected
and agreed to that request," he said.
Warner Bros said in a statement that Depp "will depart the
'Fantastic Beasts' franchise," and that his role would be
recast.
Depp recently resumed production on the third film in the
spinoff from "Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling. Warner Bros
said on Friday its release date had been pushed back to summer
2022 from November 2021.
Rowling - herself a survivor of domestic abuse - declined to
comment on Depp's departure.
His exit marked a relatively rare move by Hollywood to recast an
actor on ethical grounds.
Kevin Spacey's role in "All the Money in the World" was reshot
with Christopher Plummer in 2017 after Spacey was accused by
more than 20 men of sexual misconduct. Spacey has not commented
since making an apology to his first accuser.
Charlie Sheen was fired in 2011 from television's top-rated "Two
and a Half Men" after months of drink and drug-fueled partying.
He was replaced by Ashton Kutcher.
Depp, 57, who plans to appeal the London libel judgment, wrote
that his "life and career will not be defined by this moment."
The "Pirates of the Caribbean" star had sued the publishers of
the Sun newspaper after it said he had been violent toward
former wife Amber Heard, 34. The newspaper also questioned his
casting in the "Fantastic Beasts" franchise.
The three-week libel trial in July heard evidence from both Depp
and Heard about a tempestuous marriage marked by violence on
both sides and of heavy drinking by Depp. The judge on Monday
ruled against Depp.
Rowling had come under fire in 2017 for casting Depp in the
first "Fantastic Beasts" movie after initial details of his 2016
divorce from Heard were made public.
Rowling said at the time that the circumstances of the divorce
were a private matter. Warner Bros. also said in 2017 that it
supported to decision to keep Depp.
"Fantastic Beasts," based on the magical adventures of Newt
Scamander, is set some 60 years before the "Harry Potter" films
but features several of the same key characters when they were
younger.
The first two of five planned films earned $1.5 billion at the
global box office, according to Box Office Mojo.
(Reporting by Lisa Richwine and Jill Serjeant in Los Angeles;
Editing by Matthew Lewis and John Stonestreet)
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