Actor Johnny Depp said on Friday he is resigning from the Fantastic Beasts movie franchise after losing a libel case in Britain against a tabloid that called him a "wife-beater."
Depp, writing on Instagram, said that AT&T Inc's 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 the role of Grindelwald would be recast.
The third film in the spinoff from the "Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling recently resumed production and is expected to arrive in movie theatres in 2022, Warner Bros said.
Depp wrote in his Instagram account that he planned to appeal the judgment against him in the London libel trial. "My life and career will not be defined by this moment in time," he added.
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