Did Netflix Remove Johnny Depp Movies?

Several stories report that Netflix has removed all Johnny Depp movies from its service. Not only is this flat out false, it also fails to understand how Netflix operates. Here’s what you need to know. 

Typically we don’t do posts debunking every Netflix rumor or false story we come across (there’s not enough time in the day) but this one is particularly picking up steam so we’d like to help douse the fires.

We’re going to break this down into three sections. First, we’ll cover why the story doesn’t have much merit, why Johnny Depp movies may not be on Netflix where you live, and finally, news that completely debunks any complete removal in the US specifically.

Before we dive in we want to make clear we’re not making any comments about the court case or Depp’s character. That’s not our place to do so.

How the story gained traction

Firstly, and this is a little bit of a groan from my side is that some news outlets caught onto a few “viral” tweets without properly vetting them. The viral post that most outlets seem to refer to is a Tweet with 49 retweets and a couple of hundred likes. One of the other early posts that picked up on this was a Reddit post where they discussed The Rum Diaries being removed.

What’s really going on with Johnny Depp movies on Netflix

In the Reddit post, they specifically refer to The Rum Diaries. That title arrived on Netflix US on December 6th, 2019. Exactly one year later, it departed Netflix.

The reason for this is that all of Johnny Depp’s movies are licensed to Netflix from the likes of Universal, Paramount, Disney, and Warner Brothers. This means that titles cycle off and on Netflix depending on which distributor is lending them out. What’s happened is there’s now a gap with no Depp movies on Netflix and people have mistaken that for a targeted action by Netflix.

You can search for all of Johnny Depp’s movies on our site and see that they’ve slowly been added and removed over time as and when their licensing deals with Netflix have come up.

Depp has yet to feature in a Netflix Original so having permanent titles on Netflix just isn’t possible right now.

Globally many Johnny Depp movies are still streaming on Netflix. In the UK for instance, Dark Shadows, Donnie Brasco, Blow, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Corpse Bride and Rango are all streaming.

Two Johnny Depp Movies Are Coming Soon to Netflix US

Now the argument would turn to Netflix not licensing future Depp titles. That’s not true either. Today, Rango, the animated feature was added to Netflix with Depp in the lead role. On January 1st, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape arrives.

So in conclusion, journalists do better.