What's the reason for Warner Bros. firing Johnny Depp, and will they fire Amber Heard?

NEGI RK Thursday, November 19, 2020

What's the reason for Warner Bros. firing Johnny Depp, and will they fire Amber Heard?

Hi.

Warner Bros. has dug quite the hole for themselves when it comes to this matter.

On one side we have Johnny Depp who was asked to resign, by Warner Bros., after he lost his libel case against The Sun’s publisher (News Group Newspapers) and their executive editor, Dan Wootton, who wrote the now infamous “wife beater” article.

On the other we have Amber Heard who is still comfortably playing Mera in the DC Extended Universe movies and also rumored to have had a meeting with Kevin Feige, the President of the Marvel Studios, regarding a role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, since the 2nd of November.

So what many fans are wondering is: How the hell is this possible, after we’ve seen all the crushing evidence against Amber Heard and in favor of Johnny Depp?

Let’s start with Johnny Depp.

Johnny Depp tried to clear his name by starting a libel case against The Sun for their article calling him a “wife beater”. The lawyers of The Sun had to try and prove that the 14 abuse allegations she made against Johnny were “substantially true” in order to win and they managed to convince the Judge that 12 of those were “substantially true”.

(Which you can read here: Vitmor Gomes's answer to What are the 14 accusations Amber Heard made about Johnny Depp, and which ones did the judge find Johnny guilty of? )

This means that, in a court of law, Johnny Depp has not been able to prove he is not a “wife beater”. His image is tainted, no matter how much we show support as legally he can continue to be called a “wife beater” by the media, and The Sun has been taking advantage of that every second that has passed since the verdict.

Now, in the eyes of Warner Bros. they have an actor who, in a court of law, didn’t manage to prove his innocence. An actor who in May will start another civil case, this time against Amber Heard herself. An actor to which the schedule will have to be adjusted for, delaying the production of the movie. An actor that (most likely) they can’t fire as contracts like his have clauses to protect the actors.

Why can’t they fire him? Because the trial was a civil one, not a criminal one, and they have no justification, since typically a studio can’t end a contract unless there’s something like criminal charges against the actor, which is not the case.

Therefor the only option they have in order to get rid of him and get someone who won’t affect the production as much, is to ask him to resign and pay him his 8 digit salary, even though he only filmed one scene. Now he has time to focus on the Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard case and his appeal on The Sun case.

Moving on to Amber Heard.

We know what she’s done. The lies, the contradictions, the audio tapes, the witness statements, etc, all dug a hole for her. A hole that will never, ever make the public even tolerate her.

A hole so deep that almost 1.5 million people have signed a petition asking for her removal.

You can sign it here: Sign the Petition

But unfortunately the public cannot break a contract between a studio and an actor. Warner Bros. probably wants Amber Heard out the door so they can finally get rid of this issue completely, but they, once again, have no reason to. There has been no criminal charges made against her and Johnny’s allegations against her also haven’t been proven in court, while hers, in the eyes of the British judge were “substantially true”.

What might give Warner Bros. a slight light at the end of the tunnel is if Johnny Depp wins his case against Amber Heard. If he wins, that will mean that to the eyes of the judge in that case, Amber Heard lied about Johnny Depp being an abuser and/or pretended that his actions in self-defense were acts of abuse.

We will have to wait until Johnny makes his appeal and starts his trial in May to even have a glimpse at what might happen in the future of these two people.