Disney Exec Is ‘Noncommittal At This Point’ About Johnny Depp Returning To ‘Pirates’ Franchise
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The return of Jack Sparrow isn’t out of the question.
In a New York Times interview, Disney president of production Sean Bailey didn’t rule out the possibility of bringing Johnny Depp back to the “Pirates of the Caribbean” series.
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Though plans for a new “Pirates” film have been not been officially announced, the studio has been hard at work for the last several years trying to restart the franchise.
“We think we have a really good, exciting story that honours the films that have come before but also has something new to say,” Bailey teased.
But many have wondered whether Depp would be returning, following the controversy surrounding his alleged abuse of ex-wife Amber Heard and their defamation trial last year.
Asked whether fans could expect Depp to come back as Captain Jack Sparrow, Bailey responded, “Noncommittal at this point.”
During Depp’s trial against Heard, the actor’s manager claimed that around 2016, Bailey and producer Jerry Bruckheimer had verbally agreed to pay the actor $22.5 million to appear in a sixth film in the franchise.
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In 2018, following the publication of an op-ed by Heard in The Washington Post, Disney hired new writers to work on a reboot of the franchise, with Bailey suggesting Depp would not be involved.
“We want to bring in a new energy and vitality,” he said at the time in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
But during the trial, Depp’s manager clarified that Disney had been “noncommittal” about the actor returning for a sixth film even before Heard’s op-ed was published in December 2018.
“It was trending badly in the late fall on behalf of Disney, but Jerry Bruckheimer and I were lobbying to make it happen. So we had hope,” Depp’s manager said. “And it became very clear in early 2019 that it was over.”
The first film in the series, “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” debuted in 2003, based on the iconic Disneyland ride.
