Despite Johnny Depp ending his run in Disney‘s “The Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise in the wake of the professional fallout from domestic abuse allegations and his settlement after allegedly assaulting a crew member on the set of “City of Lies“ while intoxicated. Mega-producer Jerry Bruckheimer is under the impression that Depp could be coaxed into returning to the Jack Sparrow role after some recent conversations.
Bruckheimer, who is coming off the massive success of Joseph Kosinski‘s “Top Gun: Maverick” and “F1,” spoke to Entertainment Weekly by leaving the door open for Depp to set sail once again after leading five previous installments.
“If he likes the way the part’s written, I think he would do it,” Bruckheimer told EW of Depp’s potential return. “It’s all about what’s on the page, as we all know.”
“It’s a reboot, but if it was up to me, he would be in it,” Bruckheimer said previously concerning the franchise’s next installment and Depp’s involvement. “I love him. He’s a good friend. He’s an amazing artist, and he’s a unique look. He created Captain Jack. That was not on the page; that was him doing a little Pepé Le Pew and Keith Richards. That was his interpretation of Jack Sparrow.”
From this new quote, it sounds dependent on a script and how Sparrow factors into the project, which could signal that Depp might not be the MAIN lead but could still have a different role to play in the bigger story (then again, it could be a bigger participation than we’re assuming).
This comes after previous chatter of a female-centric soft-reboot (we once believed it could be the feature film version of Redd, who has moved from the Disney theme park ride to an in-park character that interacts with guests) being in the works as Disney was considering the likes of “Barbie” actress Margot Robbie to lead it as they were putting together different options for more “Pirates of the Caribbean” films, one with Depp and other without him penned by screenwriter Christina Hodson that had Robbie loosely attached.
A big issue here moving forward is that, like it or not, Depp’s reputation has been tarnished, and while Bruckheimer sounds open to working with the actor again (seemingly echoing how tabloids felt about the civil trial outcome being a sort of vindication of the actor, even if it wasn’t really), Disney and Bob Iger are likely going to be the bigger hurdle to convince to invest $200 million-plus on another Depp film. Not to mention, having Depp return could simply cause headaches for everyone involved if his unpredictable behavior (sometimes violent, as highlighted with “City of Lies”) could make insuring the actor and film an expensive/problematic prospect (likely why a smaller role is more plausible).
While Bruckheimer has had those “conversations,” it remains to be seen how Disney/Iger feels about Depp’s future involvement (notably, there had been diminishing returns on the last “Pirates” movie of over $200 million between releases), since at the end of the day, this is a Disney brand property that needs to appeal to children. Also, Depp might not want to be involved if the role itself doesn’t give him much to do.
Other projects from Depp on the horizon include Marc Webb‘s upcoming “Day Drinker” (reunites with “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” co-star Penélope Cruz) and a supporting role in Terry Gilliam‘s religious satire “Carnival At The End of Days,” the latter is having some issues that are delaying production.
