Fantastic Beasts 3: What Went Wrong?

6. The Johnny Depp, Ezra Miller, And J.K. Rowling Controversies

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore Ezra Miller
Warner Bros. Pictures

You have to feel a little bit sorry for The Secrets of Dumbledore due to the sheer amount of behind-the-scenes drama surrounding it, all of which is out of the filmmakers' control.

Since the Fantastic Beasts franchise began in 2016, two of its biggest stars have become embroiled in real-life controversies, with Ezra Miller physically assaulting a woman in early 2020, and later being arrested for a completely different incident in March 2022 - right before The Secrets of Dumbledore's release.

Elsewhere, Johnny Depp lost a libel case in late 2020 and was subsequently asked to leave the franchise by Warner Bros., who replaced him with Mads Mikkelsen. Depp is currently involved in a defamation trial against his ex-wife Amber Heard, and the outcome will most likely decide if he has a future in Hollywood or not.

And then there's J.K. Rowling herself, whose various political views have made her a divisive figure over the last couple of years, with wizarding world actors like Daniel Radcliffe and Eddie Redmayne even speaking out against her.

No matter where you stand on these issues, they undoubtedly hurt The Secrets of Dumbledore, damaging the film's reputation before anyone had even seen it.

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Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.