Jack Sparrow Halloween costume sales see ‘huge spike’ following Johnny Depp and Amber Heard trial

Jack Sparrow Halloween costumes have reportedly seen a ‘huge spike’ in sales this year, following Johnny Depp’s defamation trial with Amber Heard earlier in the year.

According to reports from TMZ, most Halloween parties (in the US at least) will have a smattering of the Pirates of the Caribbean character after the ‘world’s largest costume retailer’ Halloweencostumes.com revealed they have had a 90 percent sales spike in purchases of the costume.

The retailer stocks two versions of the dishevelled pirate costume and says 85 percent of its stock has already been bought up for this year’s Halloween.

It has also reported that the Jack Sparrow costumes have outsold other film-themed outfits from recent movies including Top Gun: Maverick, Hocus Pocus 2 and Disney Pixar’s Lightyear.

Depp’s last appearance as the eccentric pirate was in 2017’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, but he saw renewed popularity with the public following his trial with his ex-wife earlier in the year.

Although he had lost an earlier trial in the UK, Depp emerged victorious in the US trial in June after six weeks of evidence being live streamed around the world.

Heard was found to have defamed Depp in her 2018 Washington Post op-ed in which she detailed her experiences with domestic violence.

Although Heard did not name Depp in the article, his team argued that it implied he was sexually and physically abusive over the course of their relationship – something he has firmly denied.

Heard was found by the jury to have defamed the actor in the piece and was ordered to pay him $10million (£8million) in compensatory damages and $5million (£4million) in punitive damages, while she was awarded $2million (£1.6million) from a countersuit after it was found that one of Depp’s attorneys had defamed her by claiming her abuse allegations were a ‘hoax’.

The Aquaman actress has since outlined the grounds on which she intends to appeal the verdict, which her legal team argues was ‘inherently and irreconcilably inconsistent’.

Following the trial, Depp returned to the spotlight to complete a tour with musician Jeff Beck and has started filming for his next movie, in which he stars as King Louis XV, as well as making a surprise appearance as a ‘moon man’ statue at the MTV VMAs in August.

[via]