The NeverEnding Story with Johnny Depp

Again, we're changing things up a little, but like Aldous Huxley once wrote it's a brave new world. Reviewing The NeverEnding Story had been suggested as a possible topic, and while, during my team's research (translation: when I surfed the web) for this information, I learned there hadn't been an alternative other than Noah Hathaway to play the role of Atreyu, I figured in 1984, the only other person who would have made sense to consider would have been Johnny Depp. Therefore, even though there are no indications this was ever a possibility, I'm going to wast-- spend the requisite time exploring what might have happened should director Wolfgang Peterson go a different route. Even though Johnny Depp had already been in the films A Nightmare on Elm Street and Platoon, it was his role in the television show 21 Jump Street which made him an icon. That show wouldn't air until 1987, so in 1984, he would have still been relatively unknown (with A Nightmare on Elm Street to be released the same year.) According to an earlier post, let's say Wes Craven decided to go with Nicolas Cage instead for the part of Glen. That would have freed Depp up to play Atreyu. Would The NeverEnding Story have been much different? Would Depp's career trajectory have changed? It's impossible to know the answer to these questions, but I'm guessing Atreyu would still get the better of The Gmork. We also might have gotten this instead: