Johnny Depp might be returning to the world of Pirates of the Caribbean, after once declaring that “nothing on this earth” could make him come back.
Franchise producer Jerry Bruckheimer revealed he has spoken to the Captain Jack Sparrow actor about a role in the sixth film. which is currently being written.
Bruckheimer said he “thinks [Depp] would do it” despite the actor ruling himself out of the sequel during his legal battles with ex-wife Amber Heard.
“If he likes the way the part’s written, I think he would do it,” Bruckheimer told EW.
“It’s all about what’s on the page, as we all know. We are still working on a screenplay. We want to make it. We’ve just got to get the right screenplay. We haven’t quite gotten there yet, but we’re close.”
News of a reboot was first announced in 2019. One year later, Depp became embroiled in a defamation case against The Sun over a 2018 article that called him a “wife beater”, which he ultimately lost.
In 2022, Depp sued Heard in Virginia court for defamation, claiming that she had falsely implied he was abusive towards her in a 2018 Washington Post op-ed titled: “I spoke up against sexual violence – and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change.”
The jury ultimately ruled in favour of Depp, but also found in favour of Heard’s countersuit, in which she claimed that Depp’s lawyer had defamed her by describing her abuse allegations as a “hoax”.
The possibility of Depp returning to the Pirates franchise was the subject of testimony during the trial.
Depp, who starred in four Pirates films from 2003 to 2017, was asked by Heard’s lawyer: “If Disney came to you with $300m dollars and a million alpacas, nothing on this earth would get you to go back and work with Disney on a Pirates of the Caribbean film?”
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“That is true,” Depp answered.
While Bruckheimer previously told The Times that Disney had no plans of bringing Depp back, he would “love” Depp to return as “he’s a friend, a terrific actor, and it’s unfortunate that personal lives creep into everything we do”.
Margot Robbie was set to lead a new Pirates movie, but Bruckheimer scrapped the project and instead set his sights on another script featuring “more of an ensemble” cast.
it is unknown whether British actors Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom, who starred in the first three films, will return.
In December 2024, Knightley, who played Elizabeth Swann, said that it wasn’t all fun and games on set, as she felt the movies were simultaneously “making and breaking” her.
“I was seen as s*** because of them, and yet because they did so well I was given the opportunity to do the films that I ended up getting Oscar nominations for,” the star of Pride and Prejudice and Atonement told The Times.
