Everything we know about the “Pirates of the Caribbean” reboot, including if Johnny Depp will return

A sixth "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie is in the works, still.

This is the day you'll always remember as the day you still haven't seen Jack Sparrow in a sixth Pirates of the Caribbean movie. There will be a sixth movie in the film franchise inspired by the Disney parks rides, producer Jerry Bruckheimer confirmed.

"We're gonna reboot Pirates," he told ComicBook.com. However, plans for a reboot were in place since at least 2019. Still, Bruckheimer's words may mean that there's wind in those sails.

It's now seven years since Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, the franchise's fifth installment. Here's what we know so far about a new Pirates adventure.

Who will star in the Pirates of the Caribbean reboot?

Official announcements haven't been made, but Bruckheimer indicated that Pirates 6 will genuinely be a reboot with a new cast. Speaking to ComicBook.com, he said, "We're gonna reboot Pirates, so that is easier to put together [than the next Top Gun] because you don't have to wait for certain actors."

He doesn't come out and say anything definitive, but it does corroborate other evidence that the new film won't bring back — or at least won't star – the franchise's pillars, including Johnny Depp, Geffrey Rush, Keira Knightley, or Orlando Bloom.

That echoes what Depp revealed during the defamation trial between the actor and ex-wife Amber Heard. Depp testified that Disney cut ties with him following Heard's 2018 op-ed in the Washington Post, where she wrote that she had been a victim of domestic abuse but did not mention Depp by name.

Even if Disney and Bruckheimer changed their minds on Depp, the actor said in court that he wouldn't come back, even if he was offered "$300 million and a million alpacas," as Heard's lawyer put it.

"That is true," Depp responded. "There was a deep and distinct sense of feeling betrayed by the people that I've worked hard for. People that I delivered a character to that they initially despised, but I stuck to my guns with the character, and it seemed to work."

At one point, there were plans for Margot Robbie to star in a female-fronted version of Pirates. This wasn't the reboot or a formal spinoff, but a separate story with new characters.

However, Robbie says that film isn't moving forward. "We had an idea and we were developing it for a while, ages ago, to have more of a female-led — not totally female-led, but just a different kind of story — which we thought would've been really cool, but I guess they don't want to do it," Robbie told Vanity Fair in 2022.

Who is writing the Pirates of the Caribbean reboot?

Craig Mazin, creator of The Last of Us and Chernobyl, earlier revealed he is working with original screenwriter Ted Elliot on a new Pirates movie. They were reportedly brought into the project in 2019 when Deadpool scribes Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick dropped out, per Deadline. However, the 2023 WGA strike put the process on hold.

“We pitched it and thought there’s no way they’re buying it, it’s too weird. And they did!” Mazin told the Los Angeles Times in August 2023. “And then he wrote a fantastic script and the strike happened and everyone’s waiting around.”

Previously, Christina Hodson, who worked on Birds of Prey with Robbie, was attached as a writer for the Robbie version, EW confirmed at the time. That appears to be a thing of the past as well.

During his trial, Depp said that before Heard's op-ed, Disney approached him "to take part in writing in Pirates 6." He later added, "Having added much of myself, much of my own rewriting, the dialogue, the scenes, the jokes, I didn't quite understand how after that long relationship and quite a successful relationship with Disney that… suddenly I was guilty until proven innocent."

When will Pirates of the Caribbean 6 be released?

No other details have been revealed as far as a timeline, title, plot, or director.

Asked which would come first between a new Top Gun or Pirates movie, Bruckheimer told ComicBook.com, "It's hard to tell. You don't know, you really don't know...Because with Top Gun you have an actor who is iconic and brilliant. And how many movies he does before he does Top Gun, I can't tell you. But we're gonna reboot Pirates, so that is easier to put together because you don't have to wait for certain actors." All he's revealed is that it's moving along in some early stage of production.

Reps for Disney did not immediately respond to Entertainment Weekly's request for comment.

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