Johnny Depp’s surprise appearance at a Comic-Con was met with cheers from fantasy fans – and stunned silence from others who deemed it “inappropriate”.
Audience members questioned why the organisers had the Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald appearing on the same stage that his ex-wife Amber Heard would appear on just minutes later.
Heard accused Depp of abuse and violence during their 15-month marriage when she filed for divorce in May 2016.
The actress was on a panel at the event to promote her upcoming film Aquaman, alongside co-stars Jason Momoa, Nicole Kidman and Patrick Wilson.
But before this, stars of Fantastic Beasts, Eddie Redmayne, Jude Law and Zoe Kravitz, walked on for their own panel discussion, minus Depp. Then the 55-year-old dramatically appeared on stage dressed as his character Gellert Grindelwald and gave a short but creepy monologue. Watch:
“My brothers, my sisters my friends. The great gift of your applause is not for me but for yourselves. Therefore, applaud yourselves,” he began.
Making very little sense, even in context as the movie’s villain, he said that he didn’t hate “muggles” – the Harry Potter universe word for non-magical humans – before proclaiming that those “who live for freedom, for truth, the moment has come to rise up and take our rightful place in the world”.
