Pirates of the Caribbean producer 'would love' Johnny Depp to return for sixth film

Producer Jerry Bruckheimer has said he "would love" Johnny Depp to return as Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.

The 59-year-old actor has played the comedy pirate five times in Disney's hit action adventure movies, which are currently being revived for a sixth film.

Bruckheimer told Entertainment Tonight on the Oscars red carpet: “We’re all working on it [the next Pirates film]. We’ll see how it comes out. We’re very excited, I think we’re gonna have a great screenplay when, and we’re getting close.”

Read more: Johnny Depp's acting return revealed in first look at star as King Louis XV

Asked if there was a possibility Depp would be involved, he said: “We’ll see. I would love it. I would love to have him in the movie – that’s all that I can tell you.”

Margot Robbie confirmed last year that the female-led Pirates of the Caribbean movie she had signed up to star in would no longer be going ahead.

Depp had been rumoured to be in talks with Disney on a multi-million dollar deal to reprise his role as Jack Sparrow.

Watch: Jerry Bruckheimer is keen to have Johnny Depp back as Jack Sparrow

His spokesperson denied these reports in June 2022.

Depp previously said: "If Disney came with $300 million and a million alpacas, nothing on this earth would get me to go back and work with Disney on a Pirates of the Caribbean film."

He said during his defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard that he felt betrayed by Disney and made the comment after he felt the company had shunned him.

Depp starred as Captain Jack Sparrow in all five of the previous Pirates of the Caribbean movies between 2003 and 2017.

The original film The Curse Of The Black Pearl, starring Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom, was inspired by the Disney theme park ride.

Depp said during his recent defamation trial that while Disney had distanced themselves from him following his public divorce battle with Heard in 2017, it continued to use his image on the rides and sell merchandise featuring him.

The actor said in a previous interview: "If [people are] moved by Captain Jack Sparrow in any way, I don’t need a company to do that. I can just do that myself and no one can take that away so that’s the greatest pleasure of Captain Jack Sparrow.”

Robbie told Vanity Fair in December 2022 that her Pirates project was dead in the water.

She said: “We had an idea and we were developing it for a while, ages ago, to have more of a female-led -not totally female-led, but just a different kind of story -which we thought would’ve been really cool, but I guess they don’t want to do it."

Depp won victory against Heard in their defamation trial after a jury ruled in his favour. Depp sued Heard for libelling him in an article she wrote in 2018, alleging that she was a domestic abuse survivor.

Heard - who had counter-sued Depp in return - was ordered to pay him $10.35 million in damages.

Read more: Johnny Depp says he is a victim of cancel culture "injustice"

The couple met on set of 2011 film The Rum Diary. They married in 2015 and Heard filed for divorce in 2016.