The release last month of the first image of Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer in character from next summer’s big-budget western adventure The Lone Ranger didn’t particularly set the world on fire. One of the major question marks surrounding the troubled production was how Depp would look as the Ranger’s faithful Indian companion Tonto. In the months before the release of the first Pirates of the Caribbean, images of Depp in character as Captain Jack Sparrow led skeptics to believe the eclectic actor had gone off the deep end and the movie would be an epic bomb for Disney.

Instead Pirates was a blockbuster smash that finally made Depp a bona fide movie star and spawned a billion-dollar franchise for the Mouse House. It also established the quirky and roguish Captain Jack as the first iconic movie hero of the 21st century. Pretty soon the stylish swashbuckler would become a popular Halloween costume as well. Depp had taken an unusual approach in his ideas for the character’s look, much to the consternation of studio executives already sweating over the movie’s gargantuan (for 2002/3) budget and the nagging uncertainty of a pirate movie, much less one based on one of their famous theme park rides, but the gamble paid off handsomely.

The first official image from next summer’s The Lone Ranger has been released, featuring stars Armie Hammer and Johnny Depp as the classic re-imagined western heroes the Lone Ranger and Tonto.

You can check out the image here below.

The Lone Ranger reunites Depp with the Pirates of the Caribbean team of director Gore Verbinski, writers Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, and producer Jerry Bruckheimer.

Singer and actor Dwight Yoakam was originally set to play the villain in Walt Disney’s upcoming western epic, The Lone Ranger.

Now Yoakam has had to step away from the project due to a scheduling conflict, and a replacement has already been found. William Fichtner, star of such titles as Armageddon, The Perfect Storm, Black Hawk Down, and Prison Break, has joined the movie and will now be the villain.

Now that the epic Walt Disney action adventure take on The Lone Ranger has survived that health scare and continued forward, casting has resumed.

The first to officially join Johnny Depp‘s Tonto, Arnie Hammer‘s Lone Ranger, and Helena Bonham Carter was female lead Ruth Wilson and the great Tom Wilkinson (both of which were said to be up for roles prior to the movie’s complications, but were only just confirmed recently), who’s set to play the film’s villain.

And now some smaller characters are being given faces with the report that James Frain, best known for his role as Thomas Cromwell on the hit Showtime series The Tudors, has now joined The Lone Ranger.

Finally, something new to report on the Lone Ranger front.

Deadline is reporting that Disney has found a baddie for its upcoming project, and an actor to fill its role. Tom Wilkinson will play Latham Cole, the leader of a gang who will be the one causing trouble for our lead, played by Armie Hammer.