Warner Bros. doesn’t really seem to care if over 1.5 million people have signed a petition to have Amber Heard dropped from Aquaman 2, and they definitely aren’t paying any attention to all those folks threatening to boycott Fantastic Beasts 3 after Mads Mikkelsen joined the project as the new Grindelwald, because as far as they’re concerned, Johnny Depp’s reputation is the one in tatters right now, not theirs.
The former A-lister came out on the losing end of his libel lawsuit against a British tabloid recently and ever since then, he’s been deemed radioactive in Hollywood. Indeed, similar to their rivals across town, Disney aren’t going to be swayed by fan campaigns demanding they rehire him for Pirates of the Caribbean, and are now moving forward on several new installments in the series without the actor. But Johnny isn’t going down without a fight.
According to The Guardian, Depp’s lawyers have told the court of appeal that they believe he “did not receive a fair trial” and that the high court ruling is “plainly wrong.” David Sherborne, who’s representing the Dark Shadows star, has asked the court to “set aside the judgment and order a new trial if permission to appeal against Nicol’s judgment is given.” Furthermore, Depp’s legal team is arguing that the ruling was “manifestly unsafe.”
They go on to say that Nicol “failed to undertake any, or an adequate analysis, of Ms. Heard’s shifting account, despite the importance of consistency as a consideration of a witness’s testimony.” Continuing on, Sherborne explained the following:
“Nicol concluded that the appellant was guilty of serious physical assaults without taking account of or even acknowledging that Ms. Heard had been untruthful in her evidence, without testing her account against the documentary evidence and the evidence of other witnesses, and without making any findings that he disbelieved those witnesses.”
“His uncritical acceptance of her account of events is manifestly unsafe. The conclusion which flows from an overall assessment of the judgment is that (Mr. Justice Nicol) decided to find for the ‘victim’ but failed to provide the necessary analysis to explain or justify that conclusion. Also he excluded relevant evidence from his consideration, ignored or dismissed as irrelevant matters that substantially undermined Ms. Heard, made findings unsupported by the evidence, and failed to assess whether her allegations could withstand proper scrutiny. The judge failed to properly assess her credibility by reference to documentary evidence, photographs, recordings or otherwise.”
“This was a very public judgment, reached by a single judge, making devastating findings of extremely serious criminal offences having been committed, and where this has had wider-ranging implications for the public at large, particularly victims, or those wrongly accused, of alleged domestic abuse.”
Of course, it remains to be seen if all this will fall on deaf ears or if Johnny Depp will get the redemption that he’s seeking, but either way, it’s likely that his career has taken a permanent hit at this point and he might find himself struggling to secure high profile gigs for the foreseeable future.