Johnny Depp has spoken for the first time about whether he’d like to return to the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.
The actor, 62, rose to fame starring in movies including What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, Edward Scissorhands and Sleepy Hollow.
However, it was his casting as Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean films that saw his profile skyrocket, with the actor also earning three Oscar nominations as the leading man.
He first played the cheeky character in 2003’s Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, going on to reprise the role in a further four films. The last – Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales – was released in 2017.
In the near decade since, fans have eagerly awaited another film in the franchise, however to date there’s been little updates on whether that is actually a possibility.
But Depp has now shared his thoughts on whether he’d like to take part in a potential further sequel.
At the premiere for his new film Modì, Three Days on the Wing of Madness, which he has directed, Depp was asked about returning to Pirates of the Caribbean.
‘Oh yea, that would be fun,’ he said while grinning after being asked the question by Entertainment Tonight. It comes after he once said that ‘nothing on this earth’ could make him reprise the role of Jack Sparrow.
Although he didn’t elaborate any further, his comments come after his former co-star Orlando Bloom recently weighed in too.
Bloom, who played Will Turner, said the only way another film could come together would be if all of the original cast was on board.
‘Everything is in the writing, right? Everything is on the page, and I think there’s definitely… I’m sure there’s a way to create something,’ he told Entertainment Weekly in August.
‘I would personally love to see everybody back. I think the way to win on that one is to get everybody back – if they can and if everybody wanted to go back.’
Not long after, the film’s producer Jerry Bruckheimer said he believed Depp would sign up ‘if he likes the way the part’s written’.
He added: ‘It’s all about what’s on the page, as we all know…we are still working on a screenplay. We want to make it. We just got to get the right screenplay. We haven’t quite gotten there yet, but we’re close.’
Although Keira Knightley – who played Elizabeth Swann – hasn’t commented on ever returning too, she did speak about the impact of starring in the films earlier this year.
The actress was just 18 when she was cast in the first movie, sharing the movies both ‘made and broke’ her.
‘Pirates of the Caribbean had already come out, but I think in the public consciousness, I was seen as a terrible actress,’ she told Vanity Fair when reflecting on her role in 2005’s Pride and Prejudice.
‘I had this phenomenally big success with Pirates and I think Pride & Prejudice was the first one that was a phenomenally big success but was also critically acclaimed.’
She went on: ‘I remember it coming out maybe the same year, maybe around the same time, as Pirates 2 – and I got the worst reviews ever for that. Then also being nominated for an Oscar at the same time, it was, in my 21-year-old head, quite confusing.’
The second Pirates film, Dead Man’s Chest, was released in July 2006, just a few months after Knightley received her first best actress Oscar nomination for playing Elizabeth Bennet in the Jane Austen adaptation.
Last year, she also spoke about the success off the Pirates franchise, which grossed more than $1billion (£766million).
‘They were the most successful films I’ll ever be a part of, and they were the reason that I was taken down publicly. So, they’re a very confused place in my head,’ she explained.
Knightley appeared in the first three Pirates movies, later having a cameo in the 2017 sequel Dead Men Tell No Tales.
While Depp may now seem keen to get involved again, he was previously asked about the franchise during his infamous legal battle with ex-wife Amber Heard in 2022.
He was asked by his lawyers: ‘If Disney came to you with $300m dollars and a million alpacas, nothing on this earth would get you to go back and work with Disney on a Pirates of the Caribbean film?’
‘That is true,’ he answered.
Bruckheimer previously told The Times that he would ‘love’ for Depp to return to the film series as he was a ‘friend and a terrific actor’. ‘It’s unfortunate that personal lives creep into everything we do,’ he added.
Although there had once been plans to have Margot Robbie star in a sixth film co-written by The Last of Us’ Craig Mazin, Bruckheimer eventually scrapped the project.
In 2022 Robbie told Vanity Fair that Disney had not been interested in her ‘more of a female-led’ movie.
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