As the legal battle between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard draws to a close, the petition to have the latter removed from DC’s Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom has reached an all-time high.
Picking up a ton of traction over the last week as court proceedings rounded out and the jury provided their verdict, the petition has now received more than 4,467,000 signatures, imminently approaching its latest goal of 4.5 million.
While the campaign has been active for quite some time, the pace at which its count has risen has unsurprisingly been expedited by the trial, which saw it reach 4 million signatures on May 13. Right now, there seem to be no signs of slowing down, either.
Earlier today, the verdict was revealed for both Depp’s defamation case against Heard, and her countersuit alleging defamation, but you already knew that.
Ultimately, Depp won all of his claims finding Heard guilty of defamation due to her 2018 op-ed in The Washington Post where she described herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse”. While she didn’t name her ex-husband in the piece, the jury found that she had intentionally defamed the Pirates of the Caribbean star, lying that he had assaulted her. Depp was awarded a total of $15 million in damages.
Heard was successful with one claim in her countersuit, though, proving to the jury that she was defamed by comments made by Depp’s former attorney. For this, she was awarded damages of $2 million.
Despite the traction that this petition has received, it’s unlikely any changes will be made to Aquaman 2, as it has already completed its filming and is set to launch in March of 2023.
