Every Actor Who Has Played Grindelwald In Harry Potter & Fantastic Beasts

The dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald has been played by many actors in the Wizarding World. Who are they and what did they each bring to the role?

Summary

• Each actor who portrayed Gellert Grindelwald brought their own distinct flavor to the role in the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts franchises.
• Grindelwald and Dumbledore were close in the past, planning to bring the Wizarding World out of hiding, but Dumbledore distanced himself after his sister's death.
• Despite the recasting of Grindelwald multiple times, the franchise's final installment, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, was a box-office disaster and couldn't save the franchise.

There were many Gellert Grindelwald actors throughout the Harry Potter franchise, especially as Fantastic Beasts brought him into the spotlight. Each iteration of the infamous wizard Gellert Grindelwald has been wildly different from the other, with each actor bringing their distinctive flavor to the role. Gellert Grindelwald is mentioned a few times throughout the Harry Potter books, but his first official introduction was in the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book as an old "friend" hidden in Dumbledore’s past.

It is revealed that Grindelwald and Dumbledore were extremely close in the past and together planned to bring the Wizarding World out of the shadows and subdue the non-magical population. Dumbledore realizes the error in this plan, and after the death of his sister Ariana, distances himself from Grindelwald. Grindelwald went ahead with his plan but was eventually stopped by Dumbledore in a grand duel. This backstory was explored in Fantastic Beasts, which came to an early end. There have been five Gellert Grindelwald actors, some appearing in the original Harry Potter series and others in Fantastic Beasts.

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Jamie Campbell Bower

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

Jaime Campbell Bower was the first Gellert Grindelwald actor and the actor who has remained the most consistent throughout both franchises. He first took on the role in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 as a young Gellert Grindelwald in photographs and flashbacks. Grindelwald’s backstory with Dumbledore is briefly explored, but the film puts more focus on Grindelwald’s connection to the Elder Wand instead. He physically looks as Grindelwald is described in the books, with haunting good looks that draw people to him.

While Jamie Campbell Bower’s appearance is reduced to non-speaking in Deathly Hallows, he still manages to set up the character, so audiences can understand the kind of person he was with his looming presence while in photographs with a young Dumbledore, as well as his agile movements while stealing the Elder Wand. Bower later reprises the role in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. Once again, his role was kept in flashbacks, as Jude Law’s Dumbledore thinks back on when he and Grindelwald created a blood pact, so they could never harm one another.

The scene is one of few that show Dumbledore and Grindelwald's relationship in a way that suggests they were involved romantically, with them interlocking their hands and staring into one another’s eyes. The appearance of Bower’s version of Grindelwald is also updated with him now having heterochromia, the condition of having two different colored eyes, which was added for the Fantastic Beasts films.

Michael Byrne

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

Along with Jamie Campbell Bower, Michael Byrne also plays Gellert Grindelwald in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. He plays the character in the present-day timeline of the Harry Potter series, now an old man in prison paying for his past crimes. The older Grindelwald only appears in one scene, similar to in the Deathly Hallows book, where Grindelwald is questioned by Voldemort about the Elder Wand. Byrne’s portrayal of Grindelwald is wildly different from the character in the book.

The book version of Grindelwald sees the error of his ways and refuses to tell Voldemort what he wants to know, eventually leading to the death of the character. Byrne’s film version of the character, however, delights in telling Voldemort that the Elder Wand lies with Dumbledore in his grave, even laughing as Voldemort leaves to retrieve it. While he is not featured in the sequel series, Byrne's version of Grindelwald remains starkly different from the performances shown in the Fantastic Beasts films.

While Grindelwald has done terrible things in all three films, he never shows pleasure in the idea of hurting Dumbledore, instead only showing anger, sadness, or indifference to any mention of his name. Byrne’s difference from the other Gellert Grindelwald performances, however, could be explained by the lack of knowledge of how deep Grindelwald’s feelings were for Dumbledore at the time Deathly Hallows was being made. Regardless, Byrne’s performance remains the most different portrayal of Grindelwald to date.

Colin Farrell

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Colin Farrell was the first Gellert Grindelwald actor in the Fantastic Beasts series, though it was on a technicality. Grindelwald was teased as a background threat in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, instead setting up the American Auror, Percival Graves, played by Colin Farrell, to be the main villain of the film. In a twist ending, however, Newt Scamander reveals Graves to be Grindelwald in disguise. So, while Colin Farrell outwardly looks like a different character, all of his words and actions were those of Grindelwald.

Farrell’s interpretation of Grindelwald puts focus on his malicious side, spending most of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them hunting down a child named Obscurus to use for his plans. Farrell also manages to slip in hints to Fantastic Beasts' Grindelwald twist by showing fake kindness to those he is harming (a trait later seen in Grindelwald performances) and immediately finding ways to bring Dumbledore into conversations. Perhaps the largest hint that Farrell is playing Grindelwald is the similar introduction shots of Percival Graves and Grindelwald. Both are introduced with a shot of the back of their head with the same haircut.

Johnny Depp

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

Originally, Johnny Depp was set to be Gellert Grindelwald throughout the Fantastic Beasts series. He first made a cameo at the end of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, with Farrell slowly turning into Depp, revealing the twist that Grindelwald was the villain all along. In Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, he was finally given center stage and audiences were able to see who the character is for an entire film, not just restricted to cameos or flashbacks. Depp was later asked to step down from the Fantastic Beasts series and the role of Grindelwald by Warner Bros after real-life controversies arose in Depp's life.

Along with the bad reviews of the film, Depp’s Grindelwald performance was met with criticism, with critics and audiences feeling it was similar to Depp’s performances in other films and not liking the new design of the character with bleach blonde hair and starkly different colored eyes. However, at a closer look, his performance is most similar to how Grindelwald was set up in the Harry Potter books. Grindelwald’s manipulation and intelligence are cited as his greatest assets and Depp’s version of the character is the one that exemplifies these traits.

His Grindelwald acts more like a puppet master, leading people to do horrible things as opposed to forcing them to. Depp is also the Gellert Grindelwald actor who looks the most like Jamie Campbell Bower, making it more believable that they are the same person at different times in their life. Nevertheless, Depp did not return to play Grindelwald in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, in part due to the controversy surrounding his legal proceedings at the time.

Mads Mikkelsen

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore

Mads Mikkelsen was chosen to replace Depp as Grindelwald. Similar to Depp, Mikkelsen got the opportunity to play Grindelwald for an entire film, as opposed to a cameo or flashback. Mikkelsen received the most praise for portraying the character, despite the lukewarm reaction to Secrets of Dumbledore. Along with a new look with a more subtle color difference with his eyes and more understated hair color, Mikkelsen brought a quiet danger to the character, exuding confidence when intimidating the other characters.

The only downgrade for Grindelwald in Fantastic Beasts 3 is that a lot of Grindelwald’s motivations or actions don’t make much sense in continuity to the Wizarding World or to how his character was previously set up. However, Mads Mikkelsen’s Grindelwald stands out from the rest due to the focus on his romantic relationship with Dumbledore. Audiences, especially LGBTQ+ viewers, were growing tired of the small teases of the same-sex relationship between the two wizards and wanted it to be fully explored.

While Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore didn’t fully embrace the storyline, it did put more focus on it than its previous films by having Mikkelsen and Jude Law share screen time together. After a lot of recasting, Grindelwald became the role with the most different actors. Grindelwald’s portrayals are supposed to be the same person, not completely different versions of the character. Perhaps, however, this constant recasting of Grindelwald throughout the Harry Potter series and the Fantastic Beasts series is a coincidental mirror to the character of Grindelwald and how he has many masks, many sides to him, and nobody could ever tell who he truly was.

The Grindelwald Recast Couldn't Save The Fantastic Beasts Franchise

Mads Mikkelsen Couldn't Save The Franchise

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore seemed like one last-ditch effort to save the franchise, and a new Gellert Grindelwald actor unfortunately wasn't enough. The Secrets of Dumbledore tried hard to save the franchise. Not only was Grindelwald recast but Harry Potter screenwriter Steve Kloves was brought on to help J.K. Rowling pen the screenplay. In addition, the LGBTQ+ storyline between Dumbledore and Grindelwald was finally brought to the light of day. Even with all of these changes, The Secrets of Dumbledore proved to be a box-office disaster, with many of the same critiques for The Crimes of Grindelwald being launched at it.

The franchise was supposed to consist of five total films, but Fantastic Beasts 4 will never happen. it looks like Secrets of Dumbledore was unable to save the franchise, and the Harry Potter franchise will instead move on with a new Max series of the original books, ignoring this phase of the story's lifeline. While Mads Mikkelsen was a particular highlight of the third Fantastic Beasts movie, his stand-out performance unfortunately wasn't enough to save the film, and the Harry Potter prequel franchise died a quiet death.

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  Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

  Summary:

  In 1926, British magizoologist Newt Scamander travels to New York City in his ongoing field research into magical creatures. Here, he finds himself caught up in some trouble involving a No-Maj, local wizarding law enforcement, and the Dark Wizard Grindelwald.

  Release Date:

  2016-11-18

  Cast:

  Ezra Miller, Alison Sudol, Eddie Redmayne, Colin Farrell, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler

  Director:

  David Yates

  Genres:

  Fantasy, Adventure

  Rating:

  PG-13

  Writers:

  J.K. Rowling

  Runtime:

  133 minutes

  Budget:

  $175–200 million

  Studio(s):

  Warner Bros. Pictures

  Distributor(s):

  Warner Bros. Pictures

  Sequel(s):

  Fantastic Beasts and the Crimes of Grindelwald, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore

  Franchise(s):

  Harry Potter