A little over a week ago, during my Disney Studios predictions piece for this weekend’s D23 Entertainment Showcase, I predicted that a Pirates of the Caribbean announcement with Johnny Depp returning would bring the house down. While that did not end up being the case, we still received some pretty exciting news regarding the sixth movie in the franchise.
Is Johnny Depp Returning?
While speaking with Deadline, franchise producer Jerry Bruckheimer at Disney’s D23 Ultimate Event as he gears up for his Disney Legend award later this evening, he offered an update on the long-in-development project. He also shared that production is hard at work trying to get Johnny Depp back as Captain Jack Sparrow.
We’re talking to Johnny. We’re working on a screenplay. Hopefully we can get this done.
Jerry Bruckheimer
Disney is working on multiple Pirates of the Caribbean projects. The project with Depp returning that this article is referring to is with writer Jeff Nathanson (Young Woman and the Sea). The other is a Margot Robbie-centric film, which was written by Christina Hodson (Bumblebee). The Robbie project is on hold but is expected to be revisited at some point as Bruckheimer and Disney both want to work with the Barbie star.
The project still needs a director, and there have been a few names that have been floated around for the job, including Michael Bay and original trilogy director Gore Verbinski. While Disney has yet to speak with anyone just yet, I was told they were interested in some big names the “action genre” such as Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun Maverick, Tron: Legacy), Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (Bad Boys Ride or Die, Ms. Marvel), David Leitch (Bullet Train, Fall Guy), and while these are names I am sure the studio would like to meet with, at the end of the day, there could be completely different names that come up altogether.
The franchise originated with the Pirates of the Caribbean theme ride attraction, which opened at Disneyland in 1967, the last Disney theme park attraction overseen by Walt Disney. The attraction can be found at four Disney theme parks. Since then, it has become a moneymaker; the five films, all starring Johnny Depp, have grossed over $4.5 billion at the worldwide box office. The franchise has also become a revenue booster in video games, merchandise, and more.
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