‘The Boys’ Spinoff ‘Gen V’ Appears To Have Taken A Side In The Johnny Depp And Amber Heard Saga

It’s fair to say that the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard defamation trial — in which a jury awarded Depp $15 million, later settled down to $1 million — led to a lot of heated and subjective takes. Some of those takes were even reportedly from pro-Depp bots, and as Amber described the experience, she never stood a chance in “a courtroom full of Jack Sparrow fans.”

Amber had originally been sued by Depp for $50 million over a Washington Post online op-ed, in which she never mentioned Depp’s name but identified herself as follows: “[T]wo years ago, I became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of our culture’s wrath for women who speak out.” Depp’s U.S.-based lawsuit over this op-ed proceeded after his loss in a U.K. libel suit against The Sun; the U.K. court had ruled that the tabloid’s use of the term “wife beater” to describe Depp was “substantially true.”

The subsequent defamation trial devolved into a media circus with accusations involving bodily functions and tons of mudslinging following from supporters of both actors. Even now, to publicly take a side in this saga often invites a pile-on from the other camp. However, The Boys spinoff Gen V isn’t afraid of upsetting anyone.

In this week’s episode, Tek Knight descends upon Godolkin University as part of his true-crime show. He’s hunting for a public-facing answer for why Golden Boy killed himself, and Dean Shetty wonders aloud, “You’re going to blame an innocent student for Luke’s hysteria?”

Tek Knight’s answer: “I’m gonna Johnny Depp someone so hard they’re gonna want to crawl into a hole and die.”

Gen V quickly moved on from that discussion, but it was more than mere shade. The series used “Johnny Depp” as a verb, and people noticed. You can see the clip below.

Amazon’s Gen V streams new episodes on Fridays.