Johnny Depp may have lost the battle, but the war between the actor and his ex-wife Amber Heard is far from over, with yet another chapter in the courtroom saga set to play out in the coming months as the bitter split continues. Next up is a defamation lawsuit that’s seen Depp and Heard countersue each other, while there’s every chance the former Pirates of the Caribbean star’s team will launch an appeal after his libel case was dismissed.
As well as incurring millions of dollars in fees, Depp’s reputation and standing in Hollywood has taken a severe hit as well after the judge ruled that a British newspaper was well within its rights to call him a wife beater. The 57 year-old has already suffered a downturn in fortunes from where he was a decade ago when he reigned as the highest-paid actor in the industry, but being dumped from his signature role as Jack Sparrow was just one of many setbacks. In fact, according to Matthew Belloni, former editorial director of The Hollywood Reporter, the major studios “are not clamoring to be in the Depp business anymore.”
That certainly makes sense, too, as the last few years have seen actor star in a series of critical and commercial disappointments, and following the outcome of his latest venture into the courtroom, many now believe that his personal brand may be irrevocably tainted. Depp will soon be pitching up on the set of Fantastic Beasts 3 as villain Grindelwald, but there had already been backlash towards his initial casting, along with rumors that the studio might reduce his role in an effort to avoid further negative publicity.
Of course, you can never definitively count anyone out in a place as fickle as Hollywood, but Johnny Depp‘s star is most definitely on the wane and he faces an uphill battle now to return to anything even approaching his former glories.
