Captain Jack Sparrow might sail again. Johnny Depp says he is open to playing the famous pirate one more time in a sixth Pirates of the Caribbean film, and he gave one simple reason for it.
He wants to “send them off on a better note,” he said in a new TV interview this week. Nothing is signed and no film has been announced. But for fans who have waited years for this, it is a clear sign that the door is open.
One condition, and one friend
Depp made it clear that the most he wants from a new film is a proper ending for the series. He would only do it if the plans for how the story finishes are right.
The other big reason is Jerry Bruckheimer, the producer behind the series. Depp said he would go to work with Bruckheimer “tomorrow” for anything. “I trust him,” he said, and he called their bond a deep friendship.
Bruckheimer has said before that he talked with Depp about a new Pirates film and that his team was working on the script.
A role that changed his career
Depp first played Jack Sparrow in The Curse of the Black Pearl in 2003. It was a film based on a Disney theme park ride, and his strange, swaying pirate made it a huge hit, and four more films followed. The fifth one came out in 2017. There has been no new film since then.
A few years ago Depp said he was done with the role for good. His tone this week was very different.
Scrooge comes first
Depp spoke while promoting his next film, Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol. He plays the grumpy miser Ebenezer Scrooge in a new and darker take on the Charles Dickens story, directed by Ti West for Paramount. It opens in cinemas on 13 November.
Back in July, he made a surprise visit to San Diego Comic-Con dressed as Scrooge, in a long coat and top hat with a candle in his hand, to show fans the first trailer.
Our take
Depp is careful with his words here. He did not say yes, and he did not promise anything. Still, he went from never again to maybe, if it is done right, and that is a big change.
Jack Sparrow is one of the best loved film characters of the last 25 years. A last voyage that gives him a real goodbye sounds like something a lot of people would pay to see.
Would you watch a sixth Pirates of the Caribbean film with Johnny Depp back as Jack Sparrow? Tell us in the comments.
Photos via Wikimedia Commons: Johnny Depp at the Berlin film festival in 2020 by Harald Krichel (CC BY-SA 3.0); at the Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End premiere in 2007 by Anna Altheide (CC BY-SA 3.0); as Ebenezer Scrooge at San Diego Comic-Con in 2026 by Kevin Paul (CC BY 4.0); with Jerry Bruckheimer in Hollywood in 2013 by Angela George (CC BY-SA 3.0).
