Johnny Depp is back in the conversation for “Pirates of the Caribbean 6,” according to longtime franchise producer Jerry Bruckheimer, who told reporters over the weekend that the studio is negotiating the actor’s return to Captain Jack Sparrow nearly a decade after his last outing in the role.
“We’re talking to Johnny. We’re working on a screenplay,” Bruckheimer said in a carpet interview at Disney’s D23 fan expo in Anaheim, adding that he hopes the deal comes together. Representatives for Depp, Bruckheimer and Disney did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the specifics of the talks.
A reunion would return Depp to the role that revived his career in the early 2000s. “The Curse of the Black Pearl” turned him into a marquee blockbuster lead and earned him an Oscar nomination, and he carried four sequels before the franchise stalled after “Dead Men Tell No Tales” in 2017 pulled in a comparatively soft $794 million worldwide, a falloff from the series’ earlier billion-dollar outings.
The update follows years of shifting scripts and creative direction. Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick were the first writers attached to a sequel, followed by Craig Mazin and Ted Elliott; Bruckheimer has said producers developed two competing screenplays and dropped one in favor of the other. Margot Robbie has separately been linked to a spinoff built around a new lead character, and writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns was reportedly brought on this year to merge that thread with a storyline following Jack Sparrow’s son. Disney’s newer leadership, chief executive Josh D’Amaro and content chief Dana Walden, has reportedly made reviving the franchise a priority.
Depp’s path back to a major studio franchise followed a turbulent stretch. A jury sided with him in a 2022 defamation case against ex-wife Amber Heard over an op-ed he said cost him work, though both parties appealed before settling. He had exited Warner Bros.’ “Fantastic Beasts” series in 2020 after losing a separate libel case in the U.K. Since then, he has rebuilt a leading-man career, starring in Paramount’s upcoming “Ebenezer” and Lionsgate’s “Day Drinker,” due in 2027. Bruckheimer has said any return depends on the quality of the writing, and as recently as 2022, amid the Heard litigation, he indicated a comeback was not likely at the time while leaving room for it to change.
