Johnny Depp: Huge ‘spike’ in demand for Captain Jack Sparrow Halloween costumes following Amber Heard trial

Actor’s defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard took place earlier this year

Sales of Halloween costumes designed to look like Johnny Depp’s character in Pirates of the Carribean have reportedly spiked.

Depp played the dishevled Captain Jack Sparrow in five films in the Pirates franchise, and has expressed a desire to return to the franchise in the future.

News of the sales trend comes after a high-profile legal battle between Depp and his ex-wife Amber Heard.

Heard was ultimately found by a jury to have defamed the Edward Scissorhands star by implying he abused her in a 2018 op-ed published by The Washington Post, and was ordered to pay Depp $10m (£8m) in compensatory damages and $5m (£4m) in punitive damages.

However, Heard was awarded $2m (£1.6m) from a countersuit, after the jury ruled that one of Depp’s attorneys had defamed her by characterising her abuse allegations as a “hoax”.

Since the controversial verdict, Depp has returned to the public spotlight.

A report in TMZ now claims that sales of Jack Sparrow costumes have shot up by 90 per cent at the world’s biggest costume retailer, Halloweencostumes.com.

The outlet sells two different costumes modelled on the character – one costing $85 to $95 (£75 to £84) and another costing $245 to $299 (£216 to £264).

Stocks have apparently already been depleted by more than 85 per cent.

Johnny Depp in ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge' (Disney)

It is also reported that the Pirates costumes have outsold other prominent costumes from more recent films, including Top Gun: Maverick, Hocus Pocus 2 and Disney Pixar’s Lightyear.

Last week, Heard outlined several grounds on which she intends to appeal the verdict in her defamation trial.

The four-page court document submitted by Heard’s legal team argues that the verdict was “inherently and irreconcilably inconsistent”.