All Images Credit: DisneyThe controversial Hollywood movie stars Johnny Depp and Will Smith broke the internet last weekend after a video of them together went viral.
The movie industry has had more than its fair share of controversy and scandal. In recent years, though, there have been a few issues that have ensnared the entertainment industry and still have a grip on pop culture to this day.
Back in 2016, after just a year of marriage, Johnny Depp’s then-wife, Amber Heard, filed for divorce and a restraining order against her husband. The pair, who met on the set of The Rum Diary (2011), married in 2015 and by the beginning of 2017, would have a finalized divorce, with Heard citing there had been physical and verbal abuse in the relationship.
Depp refuted the claims and later went on to state that it had been he who had been the victim of domestic abuse at the hands of Amber Heard. What followed was a media storm and two highly-publicized trials — one in London after Depp sued British tabloid The Sun after the publication called him a wife-beater and a second in Virginia following Heard’s penning of her opinion essay in The Washington Post.
At London’s High Court in 2020, Depp lost the libel trial against News Group Newspapers LTD, and his appeal request was denied by Justice Andrew Nicol. In Fairfax County, Virginia, Depp came out largely the victor after the jury declared Heard had defamed her ex-husband on all three of the counts in question. The jury also decided that Depp had defamed Heard on one count, relating to Depp’s former lawyer, Adam Waldman.
Since last year’s trial, both Depp and Heard have stayed relatively out of the spotlight. Depp did go on tour with the Hollywood Vampires and later opened the Cannes Film Festival with his recent movie Jeanne du Barry (2023), and Heard recently returned to the big screen in In the Fire (2023), but on the whole, both are far from the Hollywood spotlight that made them famous.
Heard will next return, albeit in a seemingly heavily reduced role, in director James Wan’s Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023) this December, while Depp is currently filming Modi (TBD) in Hungary, his second picture as director. Despite all the controversy, though, fans of Depp are still yearning for his return to Hollywood, specifically as Captain Jack Sparrow in The Walt Disney Company’s Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. But the jury is still out on that.
Related: Johnny Depp’s Return in ‘Pirates of the Caribbean 6’ Will Cost Disney Tens of Millions
While Depp and Heard may have dominated headlines in the entertainment industry over recent years, last year, the fan-favorite actor, and fellow Hollywood star, Will Smith caused uproar after slapping comedian Chris Rock live onstage during the 94th annual Academy Awards. Since the bust-up, which was spurred on by Rock’s comments about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, the actor has had a relatively low profile, but over the weekend, both he and Johnny Depp broke the internet…together.
Posting on Instagram, Will Smith (@willsmith) shared his recent time at the Red Sea International Film Festival, writing:
Wow! Thank You Red Sea Film Festival! You have created real Magic — An Oasis of art & creativity! What’s Next? I’m in.
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The video includes various clips of Smith at the festival in Saudi Arabia, but one clip specifically caught the attention of many of Smith’s 64 million followers. In the video montage, Smith can be seen embracing and conversing with Johnny Depp, and fans cannot cope with the meeting.
Smith’s post was filled with comments celebrating the actors both individually and together. A chunk of comments declared the need for a Johnny Depp and Will Smith feature film to happen. A decade ago, maybe these Hollywood heavyweights would have had a chance at a movie together, but with the controversies surrounding both of them in recent years, it is unlikely the pair will grace the same screen anytime soon.
Related: Will Smith’s Future With Disney Revealed, Tom Cruise Involved
Following his Academy Award-winning turn in King Richard (2022), Smith went on to star in Emancipation (2022). He will next star in a currently untitled fourth Bad Boys movie. There have also been talks that a sequel to Smith’s I Am Legend (2007) is also in the works.
As for Depp, there are currently no announced projects of which he is the star, other than his directorial effort with the aforementioned Modi.
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