Daniel Radcliffe weighs in on Johnny Depp remaining in 'Fantastic Beasts'

Harry Potter fans around the world will have to come to terms with Johnny Depp as Grindelwald in Fantastic Beasts, and Daniel Radcliffe himself is among them.

“It’s a very hard thing for me,” Radcliffe told Entertainment Weekly. He expressed gratitude to the Potter producers who “gave me a great start in life and an amazing job.”

Depp was cast as early as 2016 and had a cameo in the franchise debut Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The casting caused immediate controversy; Depp was accused of domestic abuse by Amber Heard mere months earlier, and the Harry Potter fandom had already seen its share of abusers outed and ousted.

The film's director defended Depp's casting. J.K. Rowling defended Depp's casting. Heard herself posted a statement as the public disappointment failed to dissipate.

“I can see why people are frustrated with the response that they were given," Radcliffe said. "...this is a weird analogy to draw — [but] in the NFL, there are lots of players arrested for smoking weed and there is other people’s behavior that goes way beyond that and it’s tolerated because they’re very famous players."

Radcliffe wasn't able to go much further, but he did explain what he was getting at: the disproportionate response of Warner Bros. to Depp versus say, Jaime Waylett, the actor who played Crabbe in the first six Potter films.

"I suppose the thing I was struck by was, we did have a guy who was reprimanded for weed on the [original Potter] film," Radcliffe said, referring to Waylett. "Obviously what Johnny has been accused of is much greater than that.”

Waylett was fired from Potter, while Depp's role in Fantastic Beasts has only grown; the 2018 sequel will be titled The Crimes of Grindelwald for the dark wizard Depp now portrays.