Disney, and other studios, couldn’t drop Johnny Depp quickly enough when some accusations were made by his ex-partner Amber Heard. They publically dismissed him from Pirates Of The Caribbean, as did Warner Bros. from the Fantastic Beasts franchise.
Then the legal situation shifted under their feet. The “Believe All Women” approach adopted by the studios looked suddenly misguided. This didn’t help Depp, though. His career is in tatters and there are no major studio movies on his schedule.
Depp had vowed to never work with Disney again after that. However, a new online report by scooper DanielRPK says that Disney is about to U-turn and they want him back as Captain Jack Sparrow for a sixth film in the franchise. The report says that it is a supporting role.
Back in late-2022 producer Jerry Bruckheimer let slip to the Associated Press that he was working on a way to get Depp back.
Chernobyl and The Last of Us showrunner Craig Mazin is now driving the development of a sixth Pirates Of The Caribbean adventure alongside franchise stalwart Ted Elliot. Mazin had said the pitch they made to Disney was “weird” but the studio went for it.
The film series is big business for Disney. It started in 2003 with Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, which had a positive reception from audiences and film critics. It grossed $654 million worldwide.
After the first film’s success, Walt Disney Pictures announced that an entire series was in the works. Dead Man’s Chest, was released in 2006 and broke financial records worldwide on the day of its premiere, going on to become the top-grossing movie of 2006 with almost $1.1 billion at the worldwide box office.
The third film in the series, subtitled At World’s End, followed in 2007 earning $960 million.
Disney released a fourth film, subtitled On Stranger Tides, in 2011 in conventional 2D, Digital 3-D and IMAX 3D. On Stranger Tides succeeded in also grossing more than $1 billion, becoming the second film in the franchise and only the eighth film in history to do this, at the time of release.
A fifth film, subtitled Dead Men Tell No Tales, was released in 2017.
The franchise has grossed over $4.5 billion worldwide. It is the 16th-highest-grossing film series of all time and was, at the time, the first film franchise to produce two or more movies that grossed over $1 billion
