“Pirates of the Caribbean” Producer Jerry Bruckheimer Reveals Next Installment Will 'Reboot' Franchise

Johnny Depp previously starred in the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' movies as Captain Jack Sparrow; he most recently appeared in 2017's 'Dead Men Tell No Tales'

The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise appears poised for a complete reboot when it returns to the big screen.

Jerry Bruckheimer, who produced each of the five Pirates movies that starred Johnny Depp as his iconic pirate character Captain Jack Sparrow, recently told ComicBook.com that the series is poised for a reboot while speaking about his new movie, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, with its director Guy Ritchie.

"It's hard to tell. You don't know, you really don't know," Bruckheimer said when asked when audiences can expect a new Pirates movie or another Top Gun movie; he also produces the Tom Cruise action films. "You don't know how they come together. You just don't know."

"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," the producer added, referencing Cruise, 61. "But we're gonna reboot Pirates, so that is easier to put together because you don't have to wait for certain actors."

Related: Johnny Depp Honors Death of Terminally Ill 'Pirates of The Caribbean' Fan: ‘Sail on My Fellow Captain’

The Pirates franchise famously starred Depp, 60, as well as Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley in its first three entries, beginning with 2003's smash hit The Curse of the Black Pearl.

The initial story, which takes place in the 18th century, revolves around a romance between Bloom's character Will Turner and Knightley's Elizabeth Swan, who become caught up in larger conflicts between Depp's Jack Sparrow, various pirate groups and factions associated with the British Empire.

Bloom, 47, and Knightley, 39, exited the franchise for 2011's fourth entry On Stranger Tides, though they returned for appearances in the series' most recent film, 2017's Dead Man Tell No Tales. Since then, the future of the Pirates movies has remained unclear.

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Margot Robbie was at one point attached to lead a Pirates movie, as PEOPLE first reported in 2020, but the actress told Vanity Fair in November 2022 that the project was no longer in development. Weeks later, Bruckheimer himself told TheWrap that the script Robbie was working on was one of two Pirates projects in the works.

Related: Johnny Depp Open to Working with Disney After Feeling Betrayed: 'Anything Is Possible' (Exclusive Source)

"We developed two scripts at once and the Margot Robbie script was a little further away, but we'll get that made down the line too and focus on more of an ensemble Pirates movie at this point," he said at the time.

In July 2023, a source close to Depp told PEOPLE that the actor could potentially feel open to starring in more Pirates movies. “Anything is possible,” the source said at the time. “If it’s the right project, he’ll do it.”

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