'Fantastic Beasts' producer David Heyman says Johnny Depp is "extraordinary".

Johnny Depp as Gellert Grindelwald

Johnny Depp as Gellert Grindelwald

The 55-year-old actor has reprised his role as Gellert Grindelwald in the sequel 'Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald' despite protests from fans over his controversial divorce from Amber Heard in 2016, in which she claimed he'd been abusive towards her throughout their marriage.

The pair later settled their divorce out of court with Amber dropping the charges and donating her settlement to the Children's Hospital Los Angeles and the American Civil Liberties Union.

Both the producers and writer J.K. Rowling have backed Depp and Heyman told Yahoo Movies: "We wanted someone who was extraordinary, who was a little bit off centre, who had the charisma and the power to [match up to] the wonderful adversary [we had with] Ralph Fiennes. Voldemort was someone who was pure -- you know, he knew no love, and he only knew hate. Grindelwald is a different beast.

"There's something about Grindelwald -- he's a seducer -- and he has no problem wielding his wand, as it were."

Following on from the end of the first film, the sequel sees the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald escape from the Magical Congress of the United States of America (MACUSA).

Now the wizard is gathering followers to raise pure-blood wizards up to rule over all non-magical beings.

In order to stop him and his plans, a young Albus Dumbledore [Jude Law] enlists the help of Magizoologist Newt Scamander [Eddie Redmayne] who agrees to help, unaware of the dangers that lie ahead.

And both director David Yates and leading man Eddie have praised Jude's portrayal of Dumbledore.

David said: "We're seeing Dumbledore as a young man, and Dumbledore as a young man's quite a rebel.

"He's a wonderful manipulator, and he has this incredible ability to sort of manoeuvre people into situations that they may not want to be manoeuvred into. And Jude brings this amazing freshness and sexiness and sensuality and sort of wit and sort of charisma to the role."

Eddie added: "He has that sort of twinkle in his eye that was so important in the depictions of Dumbledore in the films and certainly was really important to J.K. Rowling."

Tagged in