Netflix's 'Depp vs. Heard' docuseries says it'll investigate the social media environment around the trial — but it's also capitalizing off it

• Netflix will release a new docuseries about the Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard trial.
• Covering the trial has historically been a lucrative opportunity for content creators.

Netflix is releasing a documentary series about the Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard trial, a defamation case that morphed into a weeks-long spectacle that played out in livestreams from the courtroom and on social media.

The trial began in April 2022 in Fairfax, Virginia, concluding in June of that year. Depp sued Heard in 2019, asking for $50 million in damages and alleging that she had defamed him in a 2018 Washington Post op-ed in which she described herself as a victim of domestic abuse (she did not mention Depp by name). Heard countersued for $100 million, alleging that Depp had regularly abused her during their relationship. The jury found them both liable for defaming the other.

Netflix's description of the docuseries, titled "Depp v. Heard," says that it will present both parties' testimony "side-by-side," drawing from both news and social media commentary, and investigate "the role social media played in the trial."

The trial was open to the public and livestreamed, turning it into a spectacle and a lucrative opportunity for content creators — some of whom had made entirely different kinds of content before the event — to amass millions of views.

The Netflix series premieres August 16. But despite its aim to investigate social media's effect on the trial, the show also stands to benefit from the surrounding vitriol. And as we've seen, it's historically been a lucrative business.

As Insider previously reported, some lawyers livestreaming commentary on the trial on YouTube earned hundreds of thousands of dollars in the process. Many amateur e-journalists made thousands a month commenting on the trial. In one case noted by the Washington Post, a YouTuber made $80,000 a month on the trial.

The social media fervor, as NBC News reported in a special about the trial, skewed strongly towards Depp. Hashtags in support of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" actor far outstripped those in support of Heard on TikTok, Insider reported in May 2022, with posts mocked Heard's emotional testimonies. The hashtag "Justice for JohnnyDepp" amassed more than 10.6 billion views. And Heard's name, a victims' rights lawyer told Insider in July 2022, morphed into a "dog whistle" for online misogyny in the wake of the trial.

While "Depp v. Heard" aims to be a "neutral overview" of that climate, per Netflix, it can't divorce itself from the attention economy that made it into an outsized phenomenon.