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Sometimes, it's easy to forget where an actor originally got their start. While Johnny Depp is best known these days for being one of the biggest movie stars in the world, his career began on the small screen in the popular police procedural series 21 Jump Street.
According to FlixPatrol, American audiences are revisiting 21 Jump Street on the Apple TV Store. The crime show has been climbing the charts on the PVOD platform these past three days. After debuting at the No. 22 spot, 21 Jump Street has risen to No. 10 in the United States, behind other popular shows like House, Reacher, and ALF.
Johnny Depp Was Miserable Making 21 Jump Street
21 Jump Street was a police procedural drama series that aired on Fox for five seasons from 1987 to 1991. It focused on a squad of youthful-looking undercover police officers investigating crimes in schools, gangs, and other teenage venues.
Before 21 Jump Street was rebooted as a film franchise under the direction of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, it was arguably best remembered for turning Johnny Depp into a household name. However, while he remains appreciative of the career 21 Jump Street gave him, he admitted in 2025 that he was miserable making the crime show.
"I was so miserable doing Jump Street," Depp told The Times UK in June 2025. "I mean, I was lucky as a bastard, but it was uncomfortable. It was around then people started whispering when I walked in a room. This image is cultivated that you can’t control."
Unfortunately for Depp, he was never quite able to shed that image 21 Jump Street gave him. While he spent most of the 1990s starring in drama and black comedy films, to varying success, he emerged as an A-lister in the 2000s after playing Captain Jack Sparrow in Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean movies.
After spending a decade as a major box office draw, Depp's star power began to wane in the mid-2010s. After a brief acting hiatus, largely brought on by legal troubles related to his ex-wife, Amber Heard, Depp is beginning to plot his Hollywood comeback.
The actor's first major Hollywood movie in eight years will be released by Paramount on Nov. 13. Titled Ebenezer, it is a new adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Rupert Grint, Ian McKellen, Daisy Ridley, and Sam Claflin co-star in the fantasy film.
A New Jump Street Movie Is Finally Happening
As for Jump Street, a third movie is finally moving ahead at Sony after over a decade stuck in development hell. The franchise was originally going to crossover with Sony's Men in Black series, in what would have been 23 Jump Street. However, since that never materialized, the new sequel will be titled 24 Jump Street, "out of respect for the dead," according to Lord.
Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, and Ice Cube are all in talks to return for 24 Jump Street, reprising their roles from the first two films. Rodney Rothman is set to direct the threequel. He had previously been attached to write and direct the female-driven 21 Jump Street spinoff that was also never produced.
21 Jump Street is available to rent on the Apple TV Store.
