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Johnny Depp has played plenty of great characters, but his most iconic is Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. The actor played the role for five movies and almost came back for a sixth. However, the controversy created by accusations from his ex-wife Amber Heard led to Disney dropping Johnny Depp from the role. Reportedly, Depp lost millions of dollars from being removed from Pirates 6. 

How much has Johnny Depp made through the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ movies?

Johnny Depp, who played Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean, testifies in his court case against ex-wife Amber Heard
Johnny Depp | STEVE HELBER/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
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Johnny Depp Wanted to Write ‘Pirates 6’ With Disney to Give Jack Sparrow a Proper Goodbye

According to Parade, Depp has made over $300 million for his role as Jack Sparrow in all five of the Pirates movies. The cast of these movies include Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, and Geoffrey Rush, but Depp became the main reason why audiences continued to come back to these movies. 

Depp received $10 million for the first Pirates movie, The Curse of the Black Pearl, and his salary continued to go up from there. His base salary increased to $20 million for Dead Man’s Chest, then $50 million for At World’s End, $55 million for On Stranger Tides, and $90 million for Dead Men Tell No Tales. He would have received less for Pirates 6, but it is still a salary that most people would beg for. 

Johnny Depp lost millions of dollars after being removed from ‘Pirates 6’

In 2018, Heard published an op-ed in The Washington Post that indirectly accused the actor of abusive behavior. The impact of this op-ed led to Depp losing several upcoming projects and being removed from any future Pirates projects with Disney. Right now, Depp is in the midst of a defamation lawsuit against Heard, where Depp, Heard, and other witnesses are providing their testimony about these accusations.  

According to Entertainment Weekly, During the court case, Jack Whigham, who represents Depp at Range Media Partners and previously represented him at CAA (Creative Artists Agency), said during his testimony that Depp lost around “$22.5 million” when he was removed from Pirates 6. Depp shared during his testimony that he felt “betrayed” by Disney who he feels removed him from the project before any evidence came out. 

“Having added much of myself, much of my own rewriting, the dialogue, the scenes, the jokes, I didn’t quite understand how after that long relationship and quite a successful relationship with Disney that… suddenly I was guilty until proven innocent,” Depp said.

‘Pirates’ isn’t the only franchise that distanced itself from Johnny Depp after accusations from Amber Heard

After losing a libel lawsuit against The Sun that published accusations of him committing domestic violence towards Heard, Depp was removed from his role as Grindelwald in the Fantastic Beasts movies. The actor had played Grindelwald in the first two films and was set to play him once more in The Secrets of Dumbledore before being removed and replaced with Mads Mikkelsen. 

Depp’s career isn’t entirely over as he is set to play French king Louis XV in an upcoming movie from french director Maiwenn. If the current court case goes in his favor, then we may see Depp in more future projects. But we will have to wait and see what happens with this case. 

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