After weeks of testimonies, accusations, and newspaper headlines, the trial of the decade is now coming to its end. The jury has officially reached the verdict in the defamation trial in which Pirates of the Caribbean star Johnny Depp sues his ex-wife, Aquaman star Amber Heard. Depp has made the claim for three counts of defamation for $50 million in damages. After that, Heard has started a counter-lawsuit, seeking $100 million from Depp on the same claims. That trial is yet to be started. As of this one, the verdict has now been reached:
Johnny Depp has won the case on three counts, resulting in that Amber Heard must pay $15 million in punitive damages combined, minus the $2 million that Depp must pay to Heard.
The whole thing started back in 2018 when Amber Heard wrote in The Washington Post that she was the victim of domestic violence. She didn’t mention the alleged abuser by name, but she said it was during the time she and Depp were married, so it wasn’t hard to put together 2 and 2. Depp was immediately fired by Disney from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, without even getting a chance to explain himself or without being tried for those accusations.
That caused massive public outrage in the next few years after Depp lost his job at Warner Bros’ Fantastic Beasts franchise as well, and Amber Heard still kept her role in the Aquaman franchise. If you followed this whole thing through, you probably know everything that happened.
The question is now, how will their careers continue after this? The petition to remove Heard from the upcoming Aquaman sequel currently has more than three million signatures, and the petition to rehire Depp in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise has almost 900,000 signatures. Depp said during the trial that he wouldn’t work with Disney again even if they would want to rehire him. What the future holds now regarding their careers and their upcoming movies? Only time will tell.
