By Blessing Udeobasi
The producer of Hollywood movie ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ known as Jerry Bruckheimer has said Johnny Depp’s future with the franchise is yet to be decided hinting that he might never return to his role as the swashbuckler.
Bruckheimer said this in a recent interview with The Sunday Times when he was asked whether Depp might ever return to his former role.
Instead, Bruckheimer and company are in talks with Margot Robbie to star in a separate project based in the same universe with the producer teasing, “We are developing two Pirates scripts — one with her, one without.”
This development is amid Johnny Depp’s ongoing $50 million defamation trial against his ex wife, Amber Heard who he accused of ruining his career with her 2018 Washington Post op-ed where she accused him of physically and s3xually assaulting her on multiple occasions during their brief marriage.
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In court earlier this month, Depp testified that days after Heard published the piece Disney effectively “cut ties” with him, per Variety. His agent also claimed in court that the actor lost out on a $22.5 million payday for a potential sixth instalment of the Pirates franchise.
Depp has previously stated that he would never play Sparrow again.
In an exchange with the actor, Heard’s attorney asked whether it was true that “nothing on this earth would get you to go back and work” with Disney on a new film in the franchise, according to Variety.
“That is true,” Depp replied, seemingly putting the nail in the coffin for his future with the franchise.
As for Robbie’s Pirates film, the female-fronted project is reportedly a “wholly original story with new characters,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. Bruckheimer is once again set to produce the film with a script from Birds Of Prey scribe Christina Hodson.
