Jerry Bruckheimer Discusses Johnny Depp's Possible Return to 'Pirates of the Caribbean'

By Allison Schonter

Captain Jack Sparrow's days on the high seas may not be over just yet. More than five years after he last stepped into his Pirates of the Caribbean role, Johnny Depp may be poised to return as Captain Jack Sparrow in a future franchise film, at least according to producer Jerry Bruckheimer, who recently addressed those ongoing rumors and speculation about Depp's return as Jack Sparrow.

Bruckheimer opened up about Depp's possible return to the franchise when recently chatting with the Associated Press. Asked if Depp could eventually return to the franchise, he teased, "We're still working on it," adding, "Nothing's definitive yet, but we continue to take little baby steps getting towards a screenplay." Bruckheimer previously worked with Depp on all five of the Pirates of the Caribbean films, as well as 2013's The Lone Ranger. At this time, a sixth film is not confirmed, with Disney having previously rejected a female-led Pirates of the Caribbean starring Margot Robbie.

Depp first stepped into the role of the iconic fictional pirate in 2003 with Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, a role that earned him an Academy Award nomination. He went on to reprise the role in four more films: Dead Man's Chest (2006), At World's End (2007), On Stranger Tides (2011), and Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017). However, Depp's future with the franchise has been in limbo ever since his high-profile divorce from Amber Heard and the subsequent abuse allegations. In 2020, he lost his defamation lawsuit against the U.K. publishers of The Sun, which had referred to him as a "wife beater." However, the actor's future within the franchise seemed to take on a possibly different tune after a Virginia jury mostly agreed with Depp in his claims that Heard defamed him in a 2018 Washington Post op-ed.

Amid the defamation trial, the first inklings that Depp could return to the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise dropped. Speaking with the Sunday Times in May, Bruckheimer was asked if Depp would be involved in the next film. Although he said at the time," not at this point," he added that "the future is yet to be decided." He also teased, "we're developing two Pirates scripts. One with her [Margot Robbie], one without."

At this time, however, it seems that there are no concrete plans for Depp's return as Jack Sparrow. During the Virginia defamation trial, Heard's legal team asked Depp, "If Disney came to you with $300 million 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?" Depp said, "That is true."

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