The argument could be made that the world really doesn’t need another Pirates of the Caribbean movie, but when the franchise has earned over $4.5 billion at the box office and rests in the hands of our pop culture overlords at Disney, there was little chance of the Black Pearl being allowed to sail off into the sunset.
Fifth installment Dead Men Tell No Tales may have been the lowest-grossing entry since the original back in 2003, but a $795 million global total is hardly small change, and the Mouse House are keen to keep milking their swashbuckling cash cow for all that it’s worth. Chernobyl co-creator Craig Mazin is currently writing the script for the new film alongside Pirates veteran Ted Elliott, but little is known about the creative direction for the sixth high-seas adventure besides the desire to cast a female star in the lead.
Disney certainly upset a lot of fans though when they very publicly dropped leading man Johnny Depp in the wake of his headline-grabbing divorce from Amber Heard, although the studio did stand to save around $90 million on the actor’s lucrative contract to keep playing Jack Sparrow. However, following a series of revelations in the court case between the two former spouses, we’re now hearing that the 56 year-old could be set to reprise his Academy Award-nominated signature role in the upcoming sixth movie.
According to our intel – which comes from the same sources that told us National Treasure 3 was in development last year, and that Disney was doing an Aladdin sequel well before it was officially announced – the recent turn of events in Depp’s legal battle and the overwhelming support from the public in his favor has some of the Mouse House executives now lobbying for his return behind the scenes. And given that these are the same sources who also said last year that the studio was doing a Bambi live-action remake, we’ve no reason to doubt them.
If he does return though, Jack Sparrow would play more of a supporting role, similar to how he was used in Curse of the Black Pearl, with the lead still set to be a female pirate. How exactly he’d factor into the story, that we don’t yet know, but in any case, there’ve already been petitions launched to get him rehired that have amassed thousands of signatures and that goal now looks closer to reality. Besides, as one of the most popular movie characters of the century, a lot of people would have little interest in a Pirates of the Caribbean flick that didn’t feature Captain Jack Sparrow and as such, we’ve got our fingers crossed that he’s able to return.
