Following the recent rumors about his return as Captain Jack Sparrow, it was reported that he'd be joining two big horror projects. He's headed back to his gothic roots with sequels to Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow and a Jekyll and Hyde follow-up by Alien's Ridley Scott.
Depp is no stranger to the genre, and we'd be fooling ourselves if we said the darkness of both properties wasn't easily in his wheelhouse. However, while many (this writer included) were expecting full, cinematic projects worthy of the prolific actor, they were likely disheartened to learn that they were actually comic book adaptations using Depp's likeness.
This week, it was revealed that Johnny Depp (or at least his likeness) was to be featured in two upcoming comic book sequels to two gothic classics, Sleepy Hollow and Jekyll and Hyde. The runs of Return to Sleepy Hollow by Case Gilly and Savannah Mayer and Hyde by Jesse Negron and Joe Matsumoto, with work by Ridley Scott, are set to hit shelves just in time for Halloween this year.
And where is Depp in all of this? While it seems only his likeness as Ichabod is used for the Sleepy Hollow sequel, he has much more of an active role in the dark follow-up to Robert Louis Stevenson's novel as the murderous Mr. Hyde.
According to the announcement from IGN, "Johnny Depp will have input on all aspects of the property and create the character of Hyde.” While this is all certainly wonderful news for comic book and graphic novel aficionados, many horror buffs out there can't help but feel a little cheated. Especially since names like Tim Burton and Ridley Scott are attached to the projects.
Making comic books with the likenesses of real people is nothing new, and everyone from Bela Lugosi to David Bowie has popped off the page in comic book panels. Still, it feels like these titles deserve a more mainstream medium.
In this writer's opinion, there's almost a bait-and-switch quality to these developments. While comics are still a much-beloved art form, thousands of moviegoers have longed to see him return to his element in quirky films in the vein of Dark Shadows, Corpse Bride, or other strange and unusual titles.
While Depp is still set to make his official cinematic return after his recent legal dramas with ex-wife Amber Heard in the upcoming Day Drinker, there's no denying that something in the gothic genre would have arguably been a much more fitting feature. We've already missed out on having him as the Invisible Man in the failed Dark Universe; would casting him as Mr. Hyde in a similar film be so hard?
Both comic book volumes hit shelves this October.