Johnny Depp may return for another Pirates of the Caribbean film

Johnny Depp may don the dodgy braids and bandana one more time to star as Jack Sparrow in another Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, film-producing legend Jerry Bruckheimer said he has talked to Depp, and is persuaded the actor would be game to return, if the script is right.

“If he likes the way the part's written, I think he would do it,” said Bruckheimer.

“It's all about what's on the page, as we all know,” he says.

Years ago, Johnny Depp reportedly rejected a script for a mooted Pirates of the Caribbean 5, in part because it had a female villain. But it was not necessarily because Depp was against that broad idea, but rather he had another film in progress with a female villain at the time, Dark Shadows, as claimed by screenwriter Terry Rossio.

“We are still working on a screenplay,” Bruckheimer says of this new project. "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.”

Depp's dented profile

The public’s — and the movie studios’ — relationship with Johnny Depp has of course become a whole lot more complicated since the last Pirates of the Caribbean movie in 2017, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.

Depp's ex-wife Amber Heard published a Washington Post article in late 2018 recounting her experiences of domestic abuse. And while Depp wasn’t mentioned, it led to a defamation lawsuit against Heard from Depp, one that captured the public interest so much it led to a three-part Netflix documentary on the subject.

While Depp has worked since, his last true blockbuster roles were in 2017 — playing animated puffin Johnny Puff in a couple of TV series and a movie doesn’t quite cut it.

Depp even mentioned how Disney had "cut ties” with him “to be safe,” during the 2022 Depp vs Heard trial.

Disney has tried to get the Pirates of the Caribbean back in action since 2017, most notably with plans for a female-led cast fronted by Margot Robbie. Bruckheimer was talking up these plans in 2024. But while it’s clear the producer is keen on getting the films back in cinemas, it’s not clear whether Disney’s execs are really on the same page.

2017’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales was the least successful of the series’s films in cinemas since the 2003 original, before accounting for inflation. But given it still made just under $800 million, it’s still clearly a highly valuable franchise.

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