Johnny Depp’s $50M Defamation Trial Delayed Due To Pandemic

Johnny Depp has been trying to delay the $50 million defamation trial against Amber Heard for months and now it happened.

The decision wasn’t because the judge listened to his petition to start filming ‘Fantastic Beasts 3’ in London, but due to the coronavirus pandemic.  

In a hearing this morning in Fairfax County, Virginia, Circuit Court Chief Judge Bruce White pushed the trial back from January 11 next year to May 3, 2021, and once again the motive was COVID-19.

The judge said: “Right now, the Virginia Supreme Court has not authorized us to conduct jury trials,” Judge White told the virtually assembled lawyers for both actors. The new date is not stable, it can be modified again as the judge confirmed criminal trials are going to be the first back in court.

The trial has been pushed back twice already due to the coronavirus pandemic, the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ star asked on August 31 if the proceedings could be moved to somewhere between March and June 2021 as he was scheduled to be filming a movie from October to next February in London. Warner Bros. new movie Fantastic Beasts 3, another one in the latest franchise based on J.K. Rowling’s books, is set to start production soon