'The Fall Guy' Criticized Over 'Distasteful' Joke Involving Johnny Depp and Amber Heard

The Fall Guy has yet to hit theaters, but a line of dialogue in the Ryan Gosling action-comedy is already causing a stir for some viewers. 

In the David Leitch-directed, Drew Pearce-written movie (in theaters Friday, May 3), Hannah Waddingham's character makes a reference to the volatile relationship between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard.

On the set of the movie her character, Gail Meyer, is executive producing, she enters a trailer in disarray and remarks to director Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt), "It's like Amber and Johnny were just in here."

Universal Pictures, the movie's distributor, did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment. 

Depp, 60, and Heard, 38, were married in 2015 but ended their relationship only 15 months later.

In 2019, Depp sued his ex-wife for defamation over her 2018 Washington Post op-ed about domestic violence, though she didn't mention him by name in the article. Their contentious court battle, which included both actors making bombshell allegations of physical, emotional and mental abuse against each other, ended with the Pirates of the Caribbean star winning all three defamation claims and millions in damages. In regards to Heard's countersuit brought against Depp, he was found to have defamed her on one of three claims. She was awarded $2 million in damages.

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"This is so disappointing," wrote one user on X (formerly Twitter) of what they called the "Amber/Johnny joke" that preview audiences saw.

Calling the line delivered by Waddingham's character "distasteful," another wrote, "it's 2024, why are we writing these kinds of lines into movies?"

Another user wrote that the line was "cheap" and that they "would love to ask the writer what he thinks is so funny about domestic violence…"

The Fall Guy stars Gosling as stunt performer Colt Seavers — a character loosely based on Lee Majors' leading role in the 1980s TV series of the same name. An action-packed homage to the stunt community, the movie takes place on the Sydney, Australia set of a sci-fi blockbuster, where Colt must track down its missing leading man (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) for Gail and Jody. 

It will be released in theaters Friday, May 3.