Johnny Depp Will Be Left out of Next ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ Movie, Jerry Bruckheimer Confirms

Johnny Depp won’t be hitting the high seas anytime soon. After last appearing as Captain Jack Sparrow in 2017’s Dead Men Tell No Tales, Pirates of the Caribbean producer Jerry Bruckheimer recently confirmed that Depp will not be reprising his role as the legendary pirate of the Seven Seas in his upcoming Pirates of the Caribbean reboot film.

“It’s a reboot, but if it was up to me, he would be in it,” Bruckheimer told Entertainment Weekly. “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.”

Depp first stepped into the role of Captain Jack Sparrow in 2003 with Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. The role, opposite Orlando Bloom’s Will Turner and Keira Knightley’s Elizabeth Swan, 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). Depp’s return to the franchise has been in limbo as he largely remains absent from Hollywood – he recently returned to acting with his 2023 release Jeanne du Barry – following his 2022 libel trial against Amber Heard.

Depp’s lack of involvement in the upcoming film comes as little surprise given that it is serving as a reboot. Although Bruckheimer revealed few more details about the movie, he did confirm that screenwriter Jeff Nathanson (Young Woman and the Sea) is writing the script, sharing, “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.” No casting has been announced yet.

Bruckheimer’s upcoming reboot is one of two Pirates of the Caribbean films currently in the works. Back in 2020, word surfaced that Barbie star Margot Robbie was attached to female-fronted Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Although Robbie later stated, “I guess they [Disney] don’t want to do it,” Bruckheimer not only confirmed to EW that his film and the Robbie-fronted movie are “two different movies,” but said, “we hope to get ’em both made, and I think Disney agrees they really want to make the Margot one, too.”

All five Pirates of the Caribbean movies are available to stream on Disney+.