Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen had two days to decide whether he wanted to take on the challenge of replacing Johnny Depp in the Fantastic Beasts films or not. In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Mikkelsen spoke about the “chaotic” casting process, his determination to put his own stamp on the material, and his views on the franchise’s future.

Mikkelsen was cast as the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald in the Harry Potter spinoff series when Depp resigned (or was asked to, more likely) after losing a libel suit against the U.K.’s The Sun newspaper, which had called him a “wife beater” amid his turbulent divorce from Amber Heard. Depp appeared only briefly in the first film—Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them—since Grindelwald spent most of the movie undercover, and was played by Colin Farrell. As the titular star of the second film, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, he had much more to do.

He’d reportedly even filmed a scene for the third film, this week’s Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, before he departed the project. Mikkelsen was quickly brought on board to reduce any impact on the shooting schedule. He watched both films and read the script for the third one, which he described as a “great story.” He said:

“You don’t want to copy anything [Depp was] doing — that would be creative suicide. Even if [a role has] been done to perfection, you want to make it your own. But you still have to build some sort of bridge between what came before.”

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Image via Warner Bros.

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Mikkelsen said that he is particularly fond of his introductory scene in the film, in which former lovers Grindelwald and Albus Dumbledore, now divided ideologically, meet for a cup of tea. “I love that scene,” Mikkelsen said, adding:

“It puts aside that they’re wizards and it’s just two grown-up people with a painful and beautiful past. Their past obviously meant the world to them, but was also full of disappointment. We wanted to establish that warmth before we went into the dilemma of the scene.”

Describing Mikkelsen’s range as “extraordinary” and his presence in the film as “terrifying, vulnerable and sexy,” director David Yates said that he wanted him to play the character differently. In his own words:

“I wanted Mads to explore a version of Grindelwald that suited his strengths as an actor — and that inevitably meant a departure from what Johnny brought to the role.”

Mikkelsen said that a comment made by him about wanting to speak with Depp prior to taking on the role was probably exaggerated. “I wasn’t like, ‘Oh please let me talk to him.’ It would have been great to touch bases, ‘clean the room’ in a sense. Maybe I’ll see him in the future,” he said.

But what does the future hold? A recent Variety report suggested that Warner Bros. is looking to evaluate the performance of Secrets of Dumbledore before committing to another film. Five were initially planned, but all signs suggest that the franchise is experiencing a loss of interest among fans. Mikkelsen said that he has invented his own backstory for the character, and that he wouldn’t want him to be “instantly demagogic.” He added:

“My reason is that something happened to his entire family when he was a child that explains the hate he carries around. It’s a fantastic, detailed, complex universe [Rowling’s] created, and I’d love to hear her thoughts on it. I hope I will do more than this one [film].”

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore stars Jude Law as the titular Dumbledore, Eddie Redmayne as the magizoologist Newt Scamander, and an ensemble cast that includes Ezra Miller, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, William Nadylam, Callum Turner, Jessica Williams, Victoria Yeates, Poppy Corby-Tuech, Fiona Glascott, Katherine Waterston, Maria Fernanda Cândido, Richard Coyle, Oliver Masucci, and Valerie Pachner.

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore is currently playing in theaters.