There appears to have been little progress on a sixth Pirates Of The Caribbean, as producer Jerry Bruckheimer says he’s talked to Johnny Depp about returning. A sixth entry in the Pirates Of The Caribbean adventure series may still emerge, but progress has been glaringly slow so far. Over the weekend, Deadline cornered Jerry Bruckheimer ... Pirates Of The Caribbean | Jerry Bruckheimer’s still talking about bringing Johnny Depp back
There appears to have been little progress on a sixth Pirates Of The Caribbean, as producer Jerry Bruckheimer says he’s talked to Johnny Depp about returning.
A sixth entry in the Pirates Of The Caribbean adventure series may still emerge, but progress has been glaringly slow so far.
Over the weekend, Deadline cornered Jerry Bruckheimer at Disney’s D23 jamboree, where the franchise’s producer said, “We’re talking to Johnny. We’re working on a screenplay. Hopefully we can get this done.”
It’s a line that hints at some sort of movement, but looking back at roughly 18 months’ worth of news stories, and we’re roughly where we were at the end of 2024.
Back then, there reliable reports that Bruckheimer and Disney were hedging their bets. They had two scripts, one in which Depp again returned as Captain Jack Sparrow, and another in which Margot Robbie was placed in the lead as a new character.
In August 2025, Bruckheimer talked publicly about courting Depp for the lead role. “If he likes the way the part’s written, I think he would do it,” the producer told Entertainment Weekly. “It’s all about what’s on the page, as we all know.”
That October, a matter of weeks later, Bruckheimer also said that Margot Robbie was still attached to the Pirates Of The Caribbean franchise. A script was being worked on, he said, and Robbie “is still involved.”
“We’re working on a script,” he told TheWrap. “It’s always on the page; if we don’t have it on the page, it’s not gonna get on the screen,” Bruckheimer said. “We had two scripts at one point, and then one kinda dropped out, and then we kinda went on with the other one.”
One year on, and the script is still clearly being worked on; it’s possible that if Depp’s interested in returning, the script is being tailored to his liking.
It’s almost a decade since the release of the fifth Pirates film, 2017’s Dead Men Tell No Tales. A number of writers were hired to write sequel scripts in the years after, including franchise regular Ted Elliott and The Last Of Us showrunner Craig Mazin.
In 2022, however, Depp became embroiled in a legal battle with his ex-wife Amber Heard over allegations of domestic abuse. (Depp ultimately won that case.)
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The actor has spent the years since in smaller roles, though he’s most recently taken the lead role in Ebenezer, director Ti West’s adaptation of A Christmas Carol.
Bankrolled by Paramount, Ebenezer is due for release in November. It’s possible that Disney will be keeping a close eye on its performance to see whether Depp can still draw an audience.
We’ll bring you more on Pirates Of The Caribbean as we hear it.
