A Pirates Of The Caribbean producer has said he would “love” Johnny Depp to return to the swashbuckling franchise for its sixth instalment.
Depp, whose legal troubles with ex-wife Amber Heard have been well publicised following their trial last summer, has long been the face of the films as lead character Captain Jack Sparrow.
And now one of the film’s producers Jerry Bruckheimer alluded that Depp may return to the role in a sixth Pirates movie.
Speaking about the film while on the Oscars red carpet on Sunday, Bruckheimer told Entertainment Tonight: “We’re all working on it [the next Pirates film]. We’ll see how it comes out. We’re very excited, I think we’re gonna have a great screenplay, and we’re getting close.”
When pressed about Depp potentially returning, he added: “We’ll see. I would love it. I would love to have him in the movie – that’s all that I can tell you.”
The move to include him in the next instalment would not doubt surprise many after Depp’s agent previously claimed that the star missed out on an £18 million ($22.5m) fee for Pirates of the Caribbean 6 after Heard’s allegations of domestic abuse.
Depp claimed he was dropped as Sparrow and “cancelled” after Heard wrote a 2018 op-ed piece for the Washington Post, alleging she had been the victim of physical and sexual violence.
Giving evidence at the former couple’s libel battle, agent Jack Whigham said Depp did not appear in any studio films between December 2018 and October 2020 and funding for independent movie Minamata was almost withdrawn in light of Heard’s allegations.
“It was catastrophic because it was coming from a first-person account”, he said. “It was not from a journalist, not someone observing, it was from someone saying this happened to me.”
Mr Whigham said Depp had struck an £18 million ($22.5m) “verbal agreement” with Disney to reprise his role in Pirates of the Caribbean 6, but he was told in 2019 the studio had decided to go in a “different direction”.
Months on from the defamation trial, which Depp won, The Sun alleged last November that the actor was scheduled to do a “test shoot” in February after his name was seen on a “call sheet”.
A source claimed at the time: “Johnny is set to return as Captain Jack Sparrow and is scheduled to start filming at the beginning of February at a top-secret location in the UK.
“Everything is in the early stages and there is still no director attached to the project, which is being called A Day At The Sea. Johnny is expected to do a test shoot in early February before the production gets fully underway.’
“A call sheet has been distributed among those in the know. Bruce Hendricks, who worked on the first three films, is named as the Executive Producer on the new project.”
