Washington: Actor Johnny Depp is in talks to reprise his iconic role as Captain Jack Sparrow in a potential sixth 'Pirates of the Caribbean' film, producer Jerry Bruckheimer has confirmed, signalling a possible return for the actor to the franchise.
"We're talking with Johnny, we're working on a screenplay, and hopefully we can get this done," Bruckheimer told Deadline at D23.
Additional insiders told the outlet that the sixth instalment will focus on a protagonist played by Margot Robbie, with Depp potentially returning in a supporting role.
Depp first portrayed Captain Jack Sparrow in the 2003 film ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl’, directed by Gore Verbinski. He starred alongside Orlando Bloom as Will Turner and Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Swann.
He returned for ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest’ in 2006 and ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End’ in 2007. Depp subsequently appeared in ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides’ (2011) and ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales’ (2017).
As per Page Six, the franchise has earned more than $4.5 billion worldwide across its five films.
Talk of a sixth film has continued for years. In 2018, screenwriter Stuart Beattie suggested that Depp could be retiring from the role. The same year, Disney dropped Depp from the franchise amid allegations of domestic abuse, and Depp later said he felt boycotted by Hollywood.
His departure from the franchise came before his highly publicised 2022 defamation trial against his ex-wife, Amber Heard. Depp sued Heard over a 2018 Washington Post op-ed in which she described herself as a public figure representing domestic abuse survivors.
A Virginia jury found Heard liable for defamation and awarded Depp $10.35 million in damages, while Heard was awarded $2 million on one of her counterclaims. The former couple later reached a settlement under which Depp received $1 million.
At the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, Depp said he no longer felt boycotted and had stopped thinking about Hollywood and the mainstream studio system. According to People magazine, he had also said he would not return to the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise even for "$300 million and a million alpacas".
Depp is now set to return to the big screen as Ebenezer Scrooge in the upcoming film ‘Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol’, scheduled for release on November 13.
