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A brand new Pirates of the Caribbean film is long overdue. The beloved film franchise, based on Walt Disney’s theme park attraction of the identical name, launched with 2003’s The Curse of the Black Pearl starring Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, and Kiera Knightley. The Oscar-nominated movie was followed by 4 more movies: 2006’s Dead Man’s Chest, 2007’s At World’s End, 2011’s On Stranger Tides, and 2017’s Dead Men Tell No Tales. In total, the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise has grossed over $4.5 billion worldwide on the box office and is the 14th highest-grossing film series ever.
A sixth film has been in development since 2017, but plans were stalled due partially to Johnny’s defamation trial against his ex-wife, Amber Heard. A female-led spinoff movie with Margot Robbie because the lead star was within the works at Disney, however the actress revealed that the project was canceled. We’ve rounded up every little thing it’s essential to know in regards to the reboot film and Johnny’s future within the franchise below.
‘Pirates’ Reboot Solid
The reboot film was first announced in June 2020. Jerry Bruckheimer, who produced all of the Pirates movies up to now, confirmed in an interview with The Sunday Times in May 2022 that they were still working on the screenplay for the reboot. Jerry never shared the official title or plot details, but he did confirm that they were “talking” to Margot in regards to the plans.
During a March 2024 interview with Comicbook.com, Jerry confirmed that the reboot remains to be happening but with a brand new forged. When asked when audiences can see it, he replied, “It’s hard to inform. You don’t know.”
“With Top Gun, you could have an actor who’s iconic and good. And what number of movies he does before he does Top Gun, I can’t inform you,” Jerry said about Tom Cruise. “But we’re gonna reboot Pirates, in order that is simpler to place together since you don’t should wait for certain actors.”
Johnny Depp’s Exit
Johnny’s future within the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise was threatened when his ex-wife, Amber Heard, accused him of domestic abuse in an op-ed published by the Washington Post in December 2018. On the time, Johnny was set to star within the sixth film with Joachim Ronning directing, and Ted Elliott and Craig Mazin as screenwriters. But Johnny wasn’t offered many roles, he was forced to resign from the Unbelievable Beasts franchise at Warner Bros behest, and eventually, Disney cut ties with him on the film. Through the defamation trial, which began April 11, Johnny’s agent Jack Whigham claimed that the actor was set to earn over $22 million for Pirates of the Caribbean 6 until Disney abruptly went “in a distinct direction” after Amber’s article was published.
Johnny confirmed during his testimony that he’d never return to the film franchise regardless of how much he’d receives a commission. He did, nonetheless, share that he initially desired to do Pirates of the Caribbean 6 to offer his character Captain Jack Sparrow a “proper goodbye.” Although Johnny was let go from the movies, Disney still featured Jack Sparrow at their theme parks. Johnny said in court that Disney “didn’t want there to be something trailing behind [Depp] that they’d find.” Johnny won the defamation trial on June 1.
Within the Sunday Times interview, Jerry was asked about Johnny’s potential return to the Pirates franchise. “Not at this point. The longer term is yet to be decided,” he said. Fans reacted poorly to that and threatened to boycott the franchise without Johnny. “And I confirm that nobody goes to look at a Pirates Of The Caribbean movie without Johnny Depp,” one fan tweeted. One other said, “Nobody will ever replace johnny depp as captain jack sparrow, he MADE pirates of the caribbean.”
Margot Robbie Was Presupposed to Be the Latest Lead
Margot’s attachment to the Pirates of the Caribbean reboot film was announced in June 2020 via The Hollywood Reporter. The report said that the Pirates movie wouldn’t be a derivative of the regular franchise, “but slightly an entirely original story with latest characters.” Jerry confirmed in The Sunday Times interview that Margot remains to be attached to the project. “We’re talking to Margot Robbie. We’re developing two Pirates scripts — one along with her, one without,” he said. Margot never publicly addressed her involvement within the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise until November 2022, when she revealed that the spinoff isn’t any longer happening.
“We had an idea and we were developing it for some time, ages ago, to have more of a female-led — not totally female-led, but just a distinct type of story — which we thought would’ve been really cool,” she told Vanity Fair. “But I suppose they don’t wish to do it.”
