10 Movie Endings That Basically Doomed Their Franchise

2. Johnny Depp Is Grindelwald - Fantastic Beasts & Where To Find Them

The Ending

It's revealed that the villainous Percival Graves (Colin Farrell) was in fact the evil dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald all along, and you know what? He's played by - surprise! - Johnny Depp.

Why It Doomed The Franchise

Warner Bros. clearly expected the introduction of Depp as the Thanos of the Fantastic Beasts franchise to be a hugely shocking rug-pull that dropped jaws the world over.

Aside from the fact that this was leaked weeks before the film came out, Depp's popularity started to take a major nosedive around the time that the first Fantastic Beasts hit cinemas.

His appearance, replacing the far more imposing Colin Farrell and kitted out in a ridiculous white-haired get-up no less, was met with both groans and laughs from many fans, frustrated that they'd have to deal with Depp's mugging for four (!) planned sequels.

And as expected, the first sequel, The Crimes of Grindelwald was an abject mess, though Depp's fairly ho-hum performance was ultimately just one of its many creative issues.

With three movies left to go and Warner Bros. reportedly frustrated that J.K. Rowling came out to defend Depp's casting in light of more recent legal and PR issues, there's clearly a sentiment among fans and the studio that Depp's casting was a massive mistake.

Granted, the series' reliance on Fantasy Nonsense at least allows the possibility of recasting Grindelwald, and maybe even bringing Colin Farrell back. If not, one suspects The Crimes of Grindelwald's slack box office performance might be repeated next time and beyond.