Johnny Depp lost his final appeal, which casts even more doubt on his future as Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean 6.

Depp lost his defamation case against UK tabloid The Sun last year. The Sun called Depp a “wife beater” in regards to his messy divorce from Amber Heard, and Depp sued the paper for libel.

Yesterday the UK Court of Appeals has denied his final appeal to overturn the ruling, meaning that it would appear that Depp’s legal battle to clear his name is at a dead end… for now. Next year Depp will sue Heard in the United States.

From Deadline…

Depp was looking to overturn a decision in which Judge Andrew Niccol ruled that the tabloid was fair in calling him a “wife beater”, with the verdict asserting that the accusation was “substantially true” in regard to his relationship with ex-wife Amber Heard. That ruling has now been upheld by the UK Court of Appeal.

This is a significant blow for Depp. After the initial trial, he was dropped from Warner Bros’ Fantastic Beasts franchise and replaced by Mads Mikkelsen, and he is now tarred with the ‘wife beater’ brush ahead of his blockbuster defamation trial against Heard in the U.S. next year.

Warner Bros. did drop Depp from the Fantastic Beasts films, but Disney has made no formal announcement yet as the future of Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.

Despite the backlash at other studios, Depp’s likeness still appears in the Pirates of the Caribbean attractions in Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Disney is also still selling merchandise of Jack Sparrow, which is a much different situation than with another “cancelled” celebrity — Gina Carano.

The word on the street is that Disney isn’t too happy with Amber Heard right now, but that doesn’t necessarily mean Depp will set sail in Pirates of the Caribbean 6.

That being said, no one really knows what is going on with Pirates of the Caribbean 6. Margot Robbie is set to star in a female-led entry into the franchise, but it’s unclear if it’s a sequel, reboot or side story.

That said, there is a rumor that Johnny Depp could still return should Disney decide not to shun him like Warner Bros.

Depp has an amazing amount of support from fans, with a petition to keep him on the Pirates franchise currently topping 500,000 signatures.

There have also been other crazy rumors that Disney would recast a younger Jack Sparrow, but the role is so ironically Depp’s, it would go over about as well as replacing Harrison Ford as Han Solo.

We can’t rule anything out, but at the end of the day money does talk. And Disney has seemed much more reluctant to cut ties with Depp than Warner Bros. While the last Depp lead Pirates film wasn’t a massive hit… it did make pretty decent money globally.

We’d say the odds are about 50/50 of Depp coming back to Pirates of the Caribbean at this point.

[Source: Deadline]