Johnny Depp joins Oz The Great And Powerful

johnny depp

Robert Downey Jr’s busy schedule continues to keep him away from awesome-sounding movies, with his other film commitments having resulted in him dropping out of Sam Raimi’s upcoming Wizard Of Oz spin-off Oz, The Great And Powerful .

Though he was only unofficially attached to the film, Downey Jr. has now officially departed the production – echoing his departure from Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity late last year.

Lucky for him – and us – a stellar replacement has been found in the form of Johnny Depp, whose own schedule is equally packed, but who is currently negotiating to take on the project.

Depp would play the role of a snake-oil salesman who enters Oz using a hot air balloon, and falls in love with Glinda the Good Witch.

With Disney keen to begin filming this summer, Depp’s got a busy year ahead. He’s also shooting Dark Shadows this spring with Tim Burton, as well as The Lone Ranger.

Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.