Depp earlier made an appearance as Captain Jack Sparrow in a Make-A-Wish movie, telling the youngster, “I am your No. 1 fan, Capt. Kori.”
A beloved fan receives a final farewell from Johnny Depp.
The 60-year-old actor offered a lengthy eulogy for Kori Stovell’s loss on Tuesday. Kori was an 11-year-old Pirates of the Caribbean fan who was born with a heart condition and was receiving hospice care after two heart transplants failed.
Continue sailing, my fellow captain! By offering your life for us, you honored us. With your bravery and determination to grin despite everything, you humbled and astounded us,” Depp said on Instagram with a black and white video of Kori.
Depp had previously dubbed the youngster “Captain Kori” during one of their Make-A-Wish Foundation-sponsored video discussions from December. He had also made a special movie for the 11-year-old and posted it to his YouTube channel, “Kraken The Box.”
The actor continued in his statement this week, “You’ve showed every one of us how to stay ahead of the curve with elegance, humor, an inexplicable understanding, and amazing decency.
“Mate, you are a fighter… We’ll cross paths once more on the highest of oceans. To you and your family forever, all my love and respect, X JD,” Depp said.
According to a source close to the actor, Make-A-Wish got in touch with him in December with “a timely ask” because Kori was in hospice care. Depp came in the video dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow, the main character from the movie, and sent the young person his best wishes.
I’m wishing you success. I am Captain Kori’s biggest admirer, he declared in the video.
When the Pirates of the Caribbean movies first came out, Kori was a “massive” Jack Sparrow fan who routinely watched them “during his multiple heart surgeries and subsequent recovery periods,” a source claimed at the time.
The little Pirates fan’s left side of the heart was underdeveloped at birth due to a condition called hypoplastic left heart syndrome. He had heart transplants in 2018 and 2020, but his body rejected both organs, according to the BBC.
Mother of the boy Pixi stated that her family is “broken beyond belief at a loss.”
As soon as Kori passed away on Sunday, she posted an emotional video, saying that he “went fairly peacefully” and that he had his “captain’s hat beside his bed and he has a pirate flag over him” when he did so.
She stated, “I would like to thank everyone who has supported Kori and watched his path. “Now that he has embarked on his greatest adventure yet, we ask that people remember him. He was humbled and overjoyed at so many things in life.”