Johnny Depp says he would consider playing Jack Sparrow again, as long as the next Pirates of the Caribbean gives the franchise a better ending. “The only involvement I really want to have, truly, is just to send them off on a better note,” Depp told Entertainment Tonight on Monday while promoting his holiday film Ebenezer. He stopped short of committing to the role. He did say he trusts longtime friend and franchise producer Jerry Bruckheimer and would work with him on almost anything.
Depp’s comments follow months of signals from Bruckheimer. In summer 2025, the producer told Entertainment Weekly he had spoken with Depp about a new film. “If he likes the way the part’s written, I think he would do it,” Bruckheimer said. The screenplay, he added, was close but not finished.
The project’s shape remains unsettled. Bruckheimer has described the next film as a reboot and has said two scripts are in development, one by Jeff Nathanson, who wrote 2017’s Dead Men Tell No Tales, and one built around Margot Robbie. Disney has announced no release date and no cast.
The studio needs a revival. Depp played Sparrow in all five films from 2003 to 2017, and the series has taken in roughly $4.5 billion worldwide. Dead Men Tell No Tales earned nearly $800 million, well below the $1 billion-plus of earlier entries. Depp earned an Oscar nomination for the first film, The Curse of the Black Pearl.
His future in the franchise has looked shaky before. In 2022, during his defamation trial against Amber Heard, Bruckheimer said Depp was not part of the plans “at this point.” The trial, along with an earlier British ruling against Depp, clouded his standing with Hollywood studios. Since then he has worked mostly on independent projects, though Ebenezer and a role opposite Penélope Cruz in Day Drinker mark a return to larger releases.
Depp said in the past he regretted never giving Sparrow a proper farewell. For now, the character remains without a ship. No deal is signed, and Disney has not commented on his remarks.
