Johnny Depp Sets One Condition for Returning as Jack Sparrow

Johnny Depp says he would return as Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean 6 for one reason: to give the franchise a proper ending. Speaking to Entertainment Tonight on the press tour for his holiday film Ebenezer, he stopped short of confirming a sixth outing in the pirate costume.

"The only involvement I really want to have, truly, is just to send them off on a better note," Depp said. "I will go to work with [Jerry] Bruckheimer tomorrow for anything. Doesn't matter... if it's Jerry, I trust him. We have a deep friendship."

What does this change for the franchise?

Not much yet — there's still no finished script. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer confirmed to Entertainment Weekly in summer 2025 that he had spoken with Depp about a new Pirates movie, and his conditions were concrete: the part has to be written well.

"If he likes the way the part's written, I think he would do it," Bruckheimer said. "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."

The mechanism here is simple. Depp's public door-opening plus Bruckheimer's standing offer means the only real obstacle is the screenplay — specifically, one that satisfies an actor who has been burned by the studio system before.

The numbers behind the comeback

Depp headlined five Pirates movies between 2003 and 2017. Every one grossed more than $650 million worldwide, and two — 2006's Dead Man's Chest and 2011's On Stranger Tides — passed $1 billion. With Depp in the lead, the series has collectively earned $4.5 billion, which explains why Disney hasn't let the property go quiet.

Why a sixth film took so long

Variety reported in summer 2020 that Disney had two Pirates projects in early development: a Margot Robbie-led reboot and a sixth film in the original franchise. Robbie told Vanity Fair in November 2022 that Disney passed on her "more of a female-led" movie.

The proper sequel moved forward instead. Bruckheimer told Entertainment Weekly in summer 2024 that screenwriter Jeff Nathanson, who wrote 2017's Dead Men Tell No Tales, had joined Pirates 6 — and had made real progress.

"He's cracked it," Bruckheimer said of Nathanson's script. "He's got an amazing third act. We just gotta clean up the first and second and then we'll get there. But he wrote a great, great third act."

Bruckheimer added that he'd be open to Depp joining the Nathanson-penned film: "It's a reboot, but if it was up to me, [Johnny] would be in it. I love him. He's a good friend. He's an amazing artist and he's a unique look. He created Captain Jack. That was not on the page, that was him doing a little Pepé Le Pew and Keith Richards."

The legal backdrop

Depp's future with the Disney-backed series has been uncertain since his legal troubles. Warner Bros. asked him to exit Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore after he lost a 2020 libel trial against The Sun, which had called him a "wife beater"; the court ruled the characterization "substantially true," and Mads Mikkelsen replaced him.

A second trial in the U.S. in 2022 went better for Depp. He sued Amber Heard for defamation over a Washington Post op-ed in which she called herself "a figure representing domestic abuse." The jury ruled Heard defamed Depp — while also ruling Depp defamed Heard in his counter-campaign.

His comeback is now underway. Ebenezer, backed by Paramount, opens this month — his first Hollywood studio release since 2018's Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald — and Lionsgate's thriller Day Drinker is scheduled for 2028. If Pirates 6 happens, Depp's return would complete that arc.