Margot Robbie has confirmed that a “female-led” Pirates of the Caribbean film has been scrapped by Disney.
It was reported back in 2020 that the Aussie actress would star in a new reboot of the hit franchise, which originally starred Johnny Depp as swash-buckling Captain Jack Sparrow.
Producer Jerry Bruckheimer, who worked on the original quintet of films, was attached to the project while Birds of Prey writer Christina Hodson was also reported to be on board.
Despite much hype over the possibility of a reboot, Robbie has revealed that the project is no longer going ahead.
She told Vanity Fair in a new interview: “We had an idea and we were developing it for a while, ages ago, to have more of a female-led – not totally female-led – but just a different kind of story, which we thought would’ve been really cool.
“But I guess they don’t want to do it,” she added, referencing Disney.
The Standard has reached out to a Disney spokesperson for comment.
Pirates of the Caribbean is one of the most commercially successful franchises of all time, grossing more than $4.5bn (£3.6bn) across five feature films.
Earlier this year, Bruckheimer revealed to the Sunday Times that he was “developing two Pirates scripts — one with her, one without”.
Robbie’s proposed spin-off was devised as an original story with new characters.
Elsewhere, a sequel to the original franchise is also in the works without Depp. The possibility of his return to the series was the subject of testimony during his defamation trial with ex-wife Amber Heard in June.
Depp was asked: “If Disney came to you with $300m dollars and a million alpacas, nothing on this Earth would get you to go back and work with Disney on a Pirates of the Caribbean film?”
To which he answered: “That is true.”
