Time Warner Inc-owned, Warner Bros studios is yet to make a formal statement on Depp's involvement with the project.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, written by J K Rowling, will feature Oscar-winner Eddie Redmayne. The plot is still unclear to the public, but it will have new characters and the story is set in New York in 1926, long preceding the
Harry Potter books and films, which were set in England in the 1990s.
Rowling revealed earlier this month that
Fantastic Beasts will be the first of five new movies set in her wizardry world.