10 Actor Replacements That Actually Improved Movies

The world was left with their jaws on the floor when Johnny Depp made a surprise cameo appearance at the end of the first Fantastic Beasts film, revealing himself to be the "true" visage of the evil dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald.

Though many lamented that Colin Farrell, who played Grindelwald disguised as Percival Graves, didn't simply play Grindelwald also, some fans nevertheless warmed to Depp's full-on portrayal in the otherwise highly divisive sequel The Crimes of Grindelwald.

But the franchise was thrown into a tailspin when, mere days into shooting his role in threequel The Secrets of Dumbledore, Depp was asked to resign after losing a libel case against a newspaper that characterised him as a "wife beater."

Mads Mikkelsen was swiftly subbed in to take over the part, yet despite the pervasive respect for Mikkelsen as an actor, many derided Depp's removal and the messy implications it had for the future of the Fantastic Beasts series.

While The Secrets of Dumbledore was ultimately a mixed bag of a movie, critics were near-unanimous in agreement that Mikkelsen's more mannered, menacing, and less-campy performance in the role was considerably more effective.

When you put Mikkelsen's acid-tongued intensity up against Depp's sillier mugging, it's really no contest as far as this supposedly terrifying villain is concerned. Moving forward, the character seems to be in good hands.