Johnny Depp Wishes Jack Sparrow Had Gotten A "Proper Goodbye”

This month has been an explosive one for Johnny Depp. Although he’s definitely found himself in the spotlight for reasons he didn’t want to be quite a lot in the past few years, since his ex-wife Amber Heard accused him of assault and domestic abuse (claims which he’s continued to assert aren’t true), the ongoing defamation trial has had the entire world’s eyes on him.

Depp claims that the allegations have caused serious damage to his reputation and career, and you only have to look at his replacement in the latest Fantastic Beasts movie, The Secrets of Dumbledore, to see that despite not being proven guilty, there’s definitely been an impact. He’s also not currently set to appear in the sixth Pirates of the Caribbean movie, and based on the latest claims made in court, it seems that his exit from the franchise was not his decision.

In The Secrets of Dumbledore, Depp, who played Grindelwald in the previous two movies, was replaced by Mads Mikkelsen - take a look below.

As reported by Variety, yesterday (25 April) Depp’s attorney Jessica Meyers attempted to establish that Depp was interested in making the sixth movie in late 2018, to dispute suggestions made by Heard’s attorney, Ben Rottenborn, last week, when it was proposed that Depp wouldn’t have wanted to return as Captain Jack Sparrow anyway. 

“My feeling was that these characters should be able to have their proper goodbye,” Depp testified yesterday. “There’s a way to end a franchise like that… I planned on continuing until it was time to stop.”

Depp also went on to claim that he learned he was going to be recast just a couple of days after Heard’s 2018 op-ed article, in which she wrote about her experience with domestic abuse (without referring to Depp by name), was published. 

“I didn’t quite understand how after that long relationship, and quite a successful relationship certainly for Disney, that suddenly I was guilty until proven innocent,” he said.

At the time of writing, the trial continues, and it remains unknown who would take the role of Jack Sparrow, if anyone, assuming that Depp remains cast out.