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Johnny Depp Out of Fantastic Beasts, Asked to Resign by Warner Bros.

speaks onstage at the Warner Bros. theatrical panel during Comic-Con International 2018 at San Diego Convention Center on July 21, 2018 in San Diego, California.

Johnny Depp, who a U.K. court affirmed can be called a wife-beater, was asked by Warner Bros to resign from the Fantastic Beasts films, and he did so sharing a message with his “fans” that he will no longer be the Dark Lord Grindelwald.

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This follows Depp losing his defamation court case against The Sun in the U.K., a case in which a lot of misinformation from Depp fans crawled into the mainstream, where even friends of mine didn’t know details of the case but were sure Amber Heard was a liar.

During the case, text messages and other information from the marriage were shared with the judge. One of the most horrifying was messages Depp sent to British actor Paul Bettany (a.k.a. Marvel’s Vision) where he called Heard a witch and said he would “fuck her burnt corpse afterwards to make sure she’s dead.”

According to The Daily Beast, lawyers for Depp had argued the messages should not be taken seriously “however dark and extravagant the language.”

The judge, Justice Nicol, said in his ruling:

“The claimant [Depp] has not succeeded in his action for libel… The defendants [the Sun and News Group Newspapers] have shown that what they published in the meaning which I have held the words to bear was substantially true.

“I have reached these conclusions having examined in detail the 14 incidents on which the defendants rely as well as the overarching considerations which the claimant submitted I should take into account. In those circumstances, parliament has said that a defendant has a complete defense.”

Messages have come in asking us at The Mary Sue why we haven’t covered this case more in detail, especially when it looked (due to misinformation) that Amber Heard was a more malicious player. The reality is that Depp fans have made any discourse about this topic truly impossible because they are determined to make Depp the ultimate victim when all evidence shows that is not the case. Even if (and there can be an argument for this) Heard and Depp were mutually harmful to each other, the blunt reality of it is that Depp has been the one pursuing this in the public eye despite having a flourishing career.

Depp was the one suing, he has been the only one suing post-divorce and attempting to turn Heard into some succubus when it is his egomania that has gotten it to a point where he loses a libel case against The Sun.

My feelings about Amber Heard do not come from some fanatical place. I was not a fan of her work before Aquaman. It comes purely from seeing how quickly people want to vilify and turn against her—from seeing even feminists I know in real life believe that she is a gold-digger despite the Rolling Stone piece that told us Depp is broke.

Even more alarming is the way people have hijacked the importance of discussing the way men can be victims of domestic violence and using it to support a man, who is on the record as being physically abusive to his partner, and is now continuing to drag these moments into the press for his own gain.

You don’t want to believe me? Fine. But read the judge’s words. Look at the transcripts from an objective source. Johnny Depp is a victim, and it’s of his own ego, and that is what lost him this job. Not Amber Heard. Him. If he had just left this case alone, he wouldn’t have been asked to resign. Until he takes responsibility, he will continue to be a monster of his own making.

(image: Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

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Author
Princess Weekes
Princess (she/her-bisexual) is a Brooklyn born Megan Fox truther, who loves Sailor Moon, mythology, and diversity within sci-fi/fantasy. Still lives in Brooklyn with her over 500 Pokémon that she has Eevee trained into a mighty army. Team Zutara forever.

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