Johnny Depp returning as Captain Jack Sparrow no longer looks entirely off the table. Pirates of the Caribbean producer Jerry Bruckheimer has confirmed that discussions are underway with Depp as work continues on a screenplay for the next movie in Disney’s long-running franchise.
Speaking to Deadline, Bruckheimer offered a brief but significant update on whether Depp could once again put on Jack Sparrow’s familiar costume. “We’re talking to Johnny. We’re working on a screenplay, and hopefully we can get this done.”
That is far from confirmation that Depp has signed a deal, and there is still no indication of how large his role might be. Still, it is one of the clearest signs yet that a Pirates of the Caribbean return involving the actor is being actively considered rather than simply discussed by fans.
Depp has been central to the franchise since Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl arrived in 2003. What began as a movie inspired by the Disney theme park attraction grew into one of the studio’s largest live-action franchises, with five films collectively earning more than $4.5 billion worldwide.
Captain Jack Sparrow became its defining character along the way. Depp appeared in all five films, most recently 2017’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.
The franchise has spent years in uncertain waters since then. Disney has explored different approaches to reviving Pirates, including projects involving new characters, while Bruckheimer has repeatedly indicated that development on another movie was continuing. The big unanswered question has consistently been whether Jack Sparrow would be part of it.
This latest update suggests that possibility has become considerably more realistic.
It also highlights the challenge facing a sixth Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Disney has a commercially valuable franchise that has been absent from cinemas for nearly a decade, but Jack Sparrow is so closely associated with its identity that moving forward without him would inevitably change what audiences expect from a Pirates film.
Bringing Depp back presents its own questions. There is currently no confirmed production date, release window, director or final cast for Pirates of the Caribbean 6, and Bruckheimer’s comments make clear that the screenplay itself remains a work in progress. Until a deal is signed and Disney formally announces the project, Depp’s involvement should be treated as a possibility rather than a completed comeback.
The producer’s wording nevertheless represents meaningful movement. Instead of answering hypothetical questions about whether he would like Depp to return someday, Bruckheimer says conversations with the actor are actually happening while the next screenplay takes shape.
After years of competing reports, abandoned ideas and uncertainty surrounding the franchise, that may be the strongest indication yet of where Disney’s next Pirates adventure is heading. Whether Captain Jack Sparrow ultimately sails again now appears to depend on turning those conversations—and the unfinished screenplay—into an actual movie.
