Johnny Depp seeks delay to US defamation trial due to Fantastic Beasts 3 filming

Johnny Depp has requested a delay to a defamation trial due to take place early next year.

The actor is suing his ex-wife Amber Heard for an article she wrote in The Washington Post which Depp says implied he was violent towards her.

Heard has not yet commented on his request for a delay.

A hearing on Mr Depp’s request for a postponement is currently set for 11 September.

Depp and Heard were married for 15 months before their split in 2016.

What did Amber Heard write?

In December 2018, The Washington Post published an article written by Heard with the headline: “I spoke up against sexual violence – and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change.”

The article called for institutions to be more protective of women who have been abused.

She specifically voiced her opposition to proposed measures which would weaken protection for sexual assault victims on college campuses.

In the article, Heard said she had become “a public figure representing domestic abuse”, but did not mention her ex-husband by name.

She said she has had the “rare vantage point of seeing, in real time, how institutions protect men accused of abuse”.

Why is Johnny Depp able to sue?

Despite not being mentioned by name, Depp is able to file a claim because in Virginia – where the Washington Post is printed – plaintiffs can pursue claims for defamation by inference, implication or insinuation.

The actor filed a $50m (£37.2m) defamation suit against Heard in March 2019, three months after her article was published.

The coronavirus pandemic has delayed the filming and release dates of countless films and TV shows around the world.

As a result, shooting of the latest instalment of the Fantastic Beasts franchise has been extended into early 2021.

This overlaps with when Depp’s defamation suit against Heard was scheduled to start.

He has now filed a motion for continuance asking the court to delay the trial until sometime between March and June 2021.