Johnny Depp is finally considering the possibility of returning to the role of Jack Sparrow in “Pirates of the Caribbean 6”. Speaking to Entertainment Tonight during his “Ebenezer” press tour, the Oscar nominee wouldn’t confirm that he would don the pirate costume again. Instead, Depp said he would never refuse a request from his friend and franchise producer Jerry Bruckheimer.
“If things are exactly where they need to be in terms of how they’re going to cap off the ‘Pirates’ franchise…the only involvement I really want to have, really, is just sending them out on a better note,” Depp said when asked if he was involved in the next installment of the franchise. “I’ll go work with (Jerry) Bruckheimer tomorrow for anything. It doesn’t matter…if it’s Jerry, I trust him. We have a deep friendship.”
Bruckheimer confirmed to Entertainment Weekly in the summer of 2025 that he had spoken to Depp about a new “Pirates” film. The producer was optimistic at the time about Jack Sparrow’s return, stating: “If he likes the way the role is written, I think he would do it. It’s all about what’s on the page, as we all know… We’re still working on a script. We want to do it. We just have to have the right script. We’re not quite there yet, but we’re close.”
Depp starred in five “Pirates” films from 2003 to 2017, all of which grossed more than $650 million at the worldwide box office. 2006’s “Dead Man’s Chest” and 2011’s “On Stranger Tides” both passed the $1 billion mark. His future with the Disney-backed series has been a question mark since his legal troubles and defamation lawsuit against Amber Heard in 2022, although he is plotting his return to Hollywood this month with the Paramount-backed holiday film “Ebenezer.” With Depp at the forefront, the “Pirates” films collectively grossed $4.5 billion.
The road to a sixth “Pirates” film has been a long one, with Variety reporting in the summer of 2020 that Disney was in early development on two “Pirates” films: a Margot Robbie-led reboot and a sixth film in the original franchise. Robbie revealed to Vanity Fair in November 2022 that Disney was not interested in her “more female-led” film. Meanwhile, Bruckheimer said THIS by the summer of 2024, screenwriter Jeff Nathanson (2017’s Dead Men Tell No Tales) had boarded the real Pirates 6.
“He succeeded,” Bruckheimer said at the time of Nathanson’s storyline. “He has an incredible third act. We just have to clean up the first and second and then we’ll get there. But he wrote a very, very good third act.”
Bruckheimer said around the same time that he would be open to bringing Depp back for the Nathanson-penned film, explaining: “It’s a reboot, but if it were up to me, (Johnny) would be in it. I love him. He’s a good friend. He’s an incredible artist and he has a unique look. He created Captain Jack. It wasn’t on the page, it was him doing a bit of Pepé Le Pew and Keith Richards. It was his interpretation of Jack.
Depp’s last Hollywood film was 2018’s “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald,” although he now has two more coming thanks to “Ebenzer” and 2028 Lionsgate thriller “Day Drinker.” Warner Bros. asked Depp to leave “Fantastic Beasts: Dumbledore’s Secrets” after losing his 2020 libel case against The Sun. The actor sued the British publication for calling him a “wife beater”, but the court ruled that this characterization of Depp was “substantially true”. Depp was eventually recast in the sequel with Mads Mikkelsen.
A second trial centered on Depp took place in the United States in 2022 after Depp sued his ex-wife Amber Heard for defamation over an opinion piece she wrote in the Washington Post in which she described herself as “a figure representing domestic violence”. The outcome of this trial was more in Depp’s favor, as the jury ultimately ruled that Heard had defamed Depp in the editorial (although the jury also ruled that Depp had defamed Heard by retaliating against her accusations).
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