Fans have been very critical of the casting, considering that the actor was accused of domestic abuse by his ex-wife, Amber Heard.



"It's a very hard thing for me," the 'Harry Potter' star told Entertainment Weekly.

He expressed gratitude to the Potter producers who "gave me a great start in life and an amazing job."

"I can see why people are frustrated with the response that they were given from that . I'm not saying anything that anybody hasn't already said - and 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. I suppose the thing I was struck by was, we did have a guy who was reprimanded for weed on the [original Potter] film, essentially, so obviously what Johnny has been accused of is much greater than that."

Rowling published a statement on her website in November, saying that she is not only comfortable with Depp's casting "but genuinely happy" to have him starring in the franchise.