It’s been a long time since we’ve heard anything official about either of the new Pirates of the Caribbean movies in the works at Disney, and you’d imagine the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic might have slowed down development on a pair of swashbuckling blockbusters that’ll set the studio back a pretty penny in production costs.
The sixth installment in the main timeline still has Dead Men Tell No Tales co-director Joachim Ronning attached to fly solo without Espen Sandberg, and series veteran Ted Elliot is co-writing the script alongside Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin. The spinoff from Birds of Prey duo Margot Robbie and Christina Hodson, meanwhile, was announced almost a year ago, but besides a couple of vague comments from the star, we know next to nothing about it.
In fact, most of the talk related to Pirates of the Caribbean over the last twelve months has almost entirely revolved around Johnny Depp, and his involvement or lack thereof. The petition to have him reinstated may have cracked 600,000 signatures, but the signs aren’t looking good for Captain Jack Sparrow’s return seeing as it’s been close to three years since the actor was initially dropped from his career-defining role.
However, insider Daniel Richtman now claims that Johnny is still hoping to sail the seven seas once again, but Disney are said to be resistant to the idea. It wouldn’t exactly be a revelation to hear that Depp is crossing his fingers for a return to Pirates of the Caribbean given that he earned hundreds of millions of dollars from the series, not to mention the fact that he brings the costume with him everywhere he goes to do good deeds for charitable causes. But for now, the ball is firmly in the Mouse House’s court, so we’ll just need to wait and see how it plays out.