Yeah, the last few Pirates movies were trending downward financially even before any rumors and scandalous innuendo. They probably made too many of them too fast and in turn burned people out on them. But regardless, Disney was already talking about an exit strategy to get costs down and one of those variables was Depp's outrageous salary. You're only worth $20+ million if the returns pay dividends. But the guy would rather keep dodging the IRS and shooting dead friends out of cannons that try and negotiate a more reasonable level of income, one which might in turn see him get more of those "high profile" gigs.
By that point there simply weren't gonna be any more Pirates movies rolling off the assembly line. Not when the receipts were trending down and the main star refused to accept a cut in pay. They were always going to need to either take a long break or reboot with a cheaper cast.
We'll see how the next one does with a "now vindicated" Depp making his "triumphant" return to a role that got boring and played out by the second movie. I actually predict it will do pretty well considering it's been years since the last one and whatever fatigue audiences were feeling that kept them from seeing the last two has probably dissipated. But regardless, there was no chance they were doing any more Pirates movies over the last few years, at least not at the rapid-fire pace Andrew seems to be implying. They might have at best done, like, one. But even that is no guarantee. They needed to sit on the shelf for a while, people were sick of it all. When everyone unanimously said they'd never watch any reboot, or any Depp-less Pirates movie, they decided to just shelve the franchise outright until the whole thing blew over. Which is smart.
I know Depp said on the stand that he'd never work with Disney again, but c'mon.
NOTHING else he's done in almost 20 years has drawn a crowd, and he has very expensive drug and alcohol habits to maintain. I'm SO sure he's done playing a pirate, when that's the one and only role anyone pays to see him in. Another negotiating tactic. Picking his spots. He sees that not even the MCU is guaranteed to do huge numbers with every swing, anymore, and that Star Wars is wrecked as far as movies go, and so Disney is gonna need another proven franchise soon enough, at which point they'll come crawling back to him. With a big raise, most likely. Joy.
As far as Heard being a "sociopath", all well and fair but why on Earth should that matter in a cesspool such as Hollywood? Granted, people like Spacey and Singer are a different breed and the fact that by all accounts they are predators means they should probably be censured to some degree. Like, people shouldn't be paying Bryan Singer $50 million of whatever to direct a movie in which he's going to turn around and use the set as his personal candyland to pick up young boys. That, I'd say, is an example of a person who deserves to be kicked out of Hollywood, sure.
But someone like Heard? Eh, nah. There's no law against being an asshole, or even a lying narcissist. Those are personality flaws, but it's not like she's a violent criminal or a sex offender. She's a vindictive gold-digging ex, like everyone with a vagina. This is news? Jesus, go ahead and "cancel" the entire female species, then.
"This woman married a rich guy for his money, treated him shabbily, exaggerated claims of mistreatment and then cheated on him! How DARE she... behave in accordance with how 99% of women behave! The absolute NERVE!"
Nah, not a good reason to sh*tcan her from the cesspool. I mean, maybe she's a bad actress, too, I've only seen her in two things (Aquaman and Justice League... maybe that's technically "three things") so I really can't say. If she's a bad actress, that should count for more than anything with regard to this kinda thing. I mean, it doesn't, but since we're always talking about society being more of a meritocracy, surely whether or not a person has the skills to perform their job means more than any personal problems a person has.
But nobody's saying they want her fired because she's a bad actress. They want her fired because she had a bad break-up with her ex who they like better (based on his TV persona). That's... well, sorry, that's nonsense. Things shouldn't work like that, ideally.