Jerry Bruckheimer, the producer for The Walt Disney Company’s Pirates of the Caribbean films, confirmed that Disney’s upcoming Pirates film will be a reboot without Johnny Depp.
Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow and Kevin McNally as Joshamee Gibbs in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), Walt Disney Studios
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Bruckheimer declared, “It’s a reboot, but if it was up to me, [Johnny Depp] would be in it. I love him. He’s a good friend. He’s an amazing artist and he’s a unique look. He created Captain Jack. That was not on the page, that was him doing a little Pepé Le Pew and Keith Richards. That was his interpretation of Jack Sparrow.”
Not only did Bruckheimer confirm Disney is rebooting Pirates of the Caribbean, but he again confirmed the company is working on two films. “It’s two different movies,” he said. “We hope to get ’em both made, and I think Disney agrees they really want to make the Margot one, too.”
Jerry Bruckheimer speaking at the 2014 WonderCon, for “Deliver Us from Evil”, at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California. Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
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The first film is from screenwriter Jeff Nathanson while the second is from Birds of Prey scribe Christina Hodson and has Margot Robbie attached.
Bruckheimer explained that he believes Nathanson is close to finishing the first film, “I think he’s cracked it. He’s got an amazing third act. We just gotta clean up the first and second and then we’ll get there. But he wrote a great, great third act.”
Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), Walt Disney Pictures
Bruckheimer previously indicated the company would reboot Pirates without Depp in an interview with ComicBook.com.
He told the outlet, “But we’re gonna reboot Pirates, so that is easier to put together because you don’t have to wait for certain actors.”
Kaya Scodelario as Carina Smyth Barbossa and Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2011), Disney
He had also previously confirmed there were multiple Pirates of the Caribbean films in the works. He told The Times (UK), “Yes. We’re talking to Margot Robbie. We are developing two Pirates scripts — one with her, one without.”
The Margot Robbie Pirates of the Caribbean film was announced back in June 2020 with The Hollywood Reporter claiming it would be a “female-fronted Pirates of the Caribbean for Disney.”
The outlet also stated it would be “a wholly original story with new characters under the Pirates moniker.”
Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), Walt Disney Pictures.
Robbie would confirm the film was in development in November 2020 telling Collider it would feature “a lot of girl power.”
It’s too early to talk about it but I appreciate that you’re psyched on the combo. I love Christina obviously. I’m not a producer on Pirates, so I’ll sit back and kind of wait for the process the way you’re allowed to do as an actor, which is nice.”
She added, “I don’t have to stress about it just yet. We’re really, really excited at the prospect of kind of adding a very key female element to that world.”
Margot Robbie as Stereotypical Barbie in Barbie (2023), Warner Bros. Pictures
Then in November 2022, Robbie informed Vanity Fair the project was not moving forward, “We had an idea and we were developing it for a while, ages ago, to have more of a female-led—not totally female-led, but just a different kind of story—which we thought would’ve been really cool, but I guess they don’t want to do it.”
However, Bruckheimer refuted this telling Collider in December 2022, “I think that that script will come forward at a certain point.”
“We developed two different stories for Pirates and the other one’s going forward first,” he added. “So that’s what we’re working on, to try to get that one made.”
Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), Walt Disney Pictures
Bruckheimer shared more details about the Pirates films to The Hollywood Reporter in December 2022, “Oh God, they’re all hard. I think we’re getting very close on that one, too. We have a very good script. We developed two of them — the one with Margot Robbie and one with a younger cast. The Margot Robbie one needs a little more work. The younger cast one is close. Hopefully we’ll get both of them.”
Bruckheimer then reiterated that the Margot Robbie script was still on the board, “It’s alive for me. It’s alive for Disney. I’m sure she was disappointed it didn’t go first — or maybe not because she’s very busy, so it might be a blessing to push this a bit. We believe we’ll get it made. It’s a very strong story.”
Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), Walt Disney Pictures
As for whether Depp would return, Bruckheimer punted on the question indicating that was up to The Walt Disney Company, “You’d have to ask them. I can’t answer that question. I really don’t know. I would love to have him in the movie. He’s a friend, a terrific actor and it’s unfortunate that personal lives creep into everything we do.”
He also noted that he would not kill off Jack Sparrow stating, “You can’t. We tried to kill him. It didn’t work.”
Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), Walt Disney Pictures
Bruckheimer gave a similar answer to Deadline in February 2023 regarding a possible Depp return. He was asked, “Would you bring Johnny Depp back in Pirates? You’ve intimated that they’re talking about that possibility?”
“Yeah. I think Johnny is another friend and amazing artist, and again you go through things in life that you wish you hadn’t. But he’s still a talented artist,” Bruckheimer responded.
As for Depp, the last time he publicly addressed returning to the role was during his court case against his ex-wife Amber Heard. He was asked by Heard’s lawyer Ben Rottenborn, “If Disney came to you with $300 million 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?”
Depp replied, “That is true, Mr. Rottenborn.”
Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (2007), Walt Disney Pictures
As for what Bruckheimer and Disney have planned for this new Pirates of the Caribbean film a rumor from Daniel RPK claimed the film would feature a black woman codenamed Anne leading a group of young pirates in search of treasure. Daniel RPK claimed that actress Ayo Edebiri was attached to the film after she recently dropped out of Marvel’s Thunderbolts film.
Scooper MyTimeToShineHello would add in a now deleted post to X, “I looked into it and Pirates of Caribbean 6 will be set in part in Haiti and the female protagonist will be Haitian.”
He also added, “Also they do want Johnny Depp to come back just not as the lead.”
MyTimeToShineHello on X
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