News broke last week that Johnny Depp had finally succumbed to the siren call of the Harry Potter films’ treasure trove of interesting hats, signing on for a co-starring role in Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them 2. Today, Potter fan-site The Leaky Cauldron confirms—via long-time franchise director David Yates—that Depp will be playing a major villain from J.K. Rowling’s magical universe: Gellert Grindelwald.
For those of you who haven’t read Rowling’s books, Grindelwald is a former friend (and crush-object) of Albus Dumbledore, and also, basically, Wizard-Hitler. (Germanic name, megalomaniacal tendencies, 1945 defeat, etc.) The character has already cropped up in recent promotions for the spinoff franchise, having been name-checked in a trailer for the first Fantastic Beasts. He might even have been shown on screen, depending on whether you think the blonde guy at 3:15 in this video looks sufficiently like Johnny Depp: