Johnny Depp appeared with his Lone Ranger producer Jerry Bruckheimer, director Gore Verbinski, and co-star Armie Hammer at a question-and-answer session to promote the film in Las Vegas this afternoon at the AMC Town Square 18 in Las Vegas. The quartet responded to questions submitted by fans in the audience and via Facebook and Twitter. While the questions broke little new ground, they did allow Johnny and Armie to display their vibrant senses of humor. Johnny also had an opportunity to explain how his “new approach” to Tonto was grounded in his desire to show respect for Native Americans.

“Not to take away from anything the great Jay Silverheels did,” Johnny said, referring to the actor who played Tonto on the Lone Ranger TV series, “but as a kid when I watched the show I didn’t understand why Tonto was the sidekick. I always felt a little unnerved about it. [. . .T]he goal really was to try to in my own small way right the many wrongs that have been done to [Native American] people and to show Tonto not only as a proud warrior but as a man just a bit outside.”

Johnny also said that he wanted to reflect the “fantastic sense of humor–very dry” that is typical of Native Americans; we can see a bit of that on display in the Lone Ranger trailers.

The Zone thanks Emma and Lou Lou 63 for sharing news coverage and photos; you can read more about the event on the Zone’s News & Views forum and the Pit General Discussion forum. Photos of Johnny at CinemaCon are available HERE.