Johnny Depp’s Big-Screen Return Is Coming

Johnny Depp insists that Hollywood has boycotted him, but overseas he’s poised to make a big-screen return. His new film, Jeanne Du Barry, will be pitched for presales at the Cannes market later this month, Deadline reported on Tuesday. The project would mark Depp’s first feature since 2020’s Minamata.

The Oscar nominee will play King Louis XV, a.k.a. Louis the Beloved, in a French-language movie directed by Maïwenn, who also stars as the ruler’s mistress, Jeanne Bécu. Louis XV reigned over France for nearly 59 years, but “died as an unpopular king…accused of corruption and debauchery,” Variety reported in January. According to the outlet, shooting will take place primarily at the Versailles Palace and is set to begin this summer. The project was first reported by the French website Satellifax.

Depp’s waning career prospects have been a focal point of his ongoing defamation case against his ex-wife, Amber Heard. Depp is suing Heard for $50 million over a 2018 Washington Post op-ed in which she identified herself as a domestic abuse survivor, but did not name Depp. Heard is countersuing for $100 million. Depp has denied the allegations she made against him. “It’s been six years of trying times,” Depp stated during his April 19 witness testimony. “It’s pretty strange when one day you’re Cinderella, so to speak, then 0.6 seconds [later] you’re Quasimodo.”

Last week, Heard’s former agent Christian Carino, who also served as Depp’s agent for a time, testified that Depp lost his role in Pirates of the Caribbean 6 because of Heard’s allegations. “My opinion is that it was related to the accusations that Amber has made,” he said. Carino clarified that while Depp’s exile “is something within the industry that is understood” he had not spoken to anyone directly linked to the Pirates franchise aside from producer Jerry Bruckheimer, who didn’t specify that Depp was ousted from the series due to the allegations. 

Depp’s career has been on a downswing since his legal battle with Heard began. He resigned from his role in the Fantastic Beasts franchise at the request of Warner Bros. after losing a libel case in 2020 against The Sun, which had called Depp a “wife-beater” in a 2018 headline. Warner Bros. replaced Depp with Mads Mikkelsen in the recently released third Fantastic Beasts film, but paid Depp his full $16 million salary after Depp had shot only a single scene. His film Minamata, in which he plays American photojournalist W. Eugene Smith, received a meager theatrical release after being shelved for about a year. As of late, Depp’s work has been relegated to voicing a character on the web series Puffins Impossible.

Depp’s return to the movies in a French-language project is a testament to his enduring popularity in Europe. Last year, both the Karlovy Vary and San Sebastian film festivals bestowed him with lifetime achievement awards.

More Great Stories From Vanity Fair

— The “Hot Mess” Duchess at the Center of a ’60s Sex Scandal
— Justice for Girls: Looking Back on the Show 10 Years Later
— The Johnny Depp–Amber Heard Trial: How Did It Come to This?
— Amanda Seyfried Wants to Reprise Her Role as Elizabeth Holmes
— How the Cast of This Is Us Won Equal Pay
— Will Smith Banned From the Oscars for 10 Years After the Slap
— Netflix’s The Ultimatum Offers a Sadistic Twist on Reality Romance
— From the Archive: How David Zaslav Became America’s King of Content
— Sign up for the “HWD Daily” newsletter for must-read industry and awards coverage—plus a special weekly edition of “Awards Insider.”