2020 has been a basically awful year. This is mostly an indisputable fact. Between global pandemic, hurricanes and wildfires, and now actual bombings, we're all ready to move forward into something better. This includes Johnny Depp, who shared a holiday message with his fans hoping for better times ahead, and that includes, one assumes, for him as well, as 2020 hasn't been the best year in the career of Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp spent a great deal of 2020 in the headlines and it wasn't for being part of box office hit films. Instead it was a year of legal battles and lost film roles. While Depp's holiday greeting to fans is specifically focused on those of us reading the message, and doesn't include any thoughts for himself, it's difficult to imagine that Depp isn't hoping that 2021 is a better year for him personally as well.
2020 was always going to be the year that Johnny Depp spent a lot of time in court. Unfortunately, it was also supposed to be the only year he spent all his time in court, and due to the global pandemic, that didn't exactly work out. Depp had a libel suit against The Sun in the U.K. and a defamation suit against his ex-wife Amber Heard in the U.S. both set for 2020. One of those two cases has been heard and has reached a decision, but the second one is still on the docket.
And the libel case which was heard in 2020, didn't go Johnny Depp's way. The court found in favor of The Sun which had referred to Depp as a "wife-beater' in its pages. Depp has promised to appeal the ruling, but that will only prolong the actor's legal issues. The defamation case against Amber Heard in the state of Virginia is currently set to go before the court this spring, though the possibility of additional delays, either due to the pandemic, or due to the backlog of cases that is the result of the pandemic, is still very possible.
And the legal issues also impacted Johnny Depp's career. He was supposed to be filming Fantastic Beasts 3 right now, but following the verdict in the libel case, he and Warner Bros. mutually agreed to part ways. The role of Grindelwald will now be taken over by Mads Mikkelsen. While the loss of the Grindelwald gig reportedly didn't cost Depp in the short term, his contract required that he be paid his full salary for the film, despite having only filmed a single scene, one assumes the character was also set to appear in the other two planned movies, and now that won't be happening for Depp.
We likely all have reasons we're glad 2020 is almost over, and while certainly, things won't magically improve with the new year, at some point things need to get better.
