Pirates of the Caribbean producer Jerry Bruckheimer has confirmed that the franchise is getting a "reboot" with the long-in-development sixth movie.
ComicBook.com recently quizzed Bruckheimer about both Top Gun and Pirates of the Caribbean, to which the producer hinted that the latter might have a better chance of returning to the big screen first because they are planning on rebooting the franchise, which makes it logistically more straightforward to work out a schedule.
"You don't know, you really don't know," Bruckheimer initially said. "Because with Top Gun, you have an actor who is iconic and brilliant. And how many movies he does before he does Top Gun, I can't tell you. But we're gonna reboot Pirates, so that is easier to put together because you don't have to wait for certain actors."
Bruckheimer confirmed back in 2022 that Johnny Depp, who starred as Captain Jack Sparrow in all five previous Pirates of the Caribbean entries, wasn't on board for a sixth voyage. There were, however, rumblings of a female-led Pirates movie starring Margot Robbie, with two scripts in development - one with her and one without.
Last year, Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production president Sean Bailey asserted after a period of uncertainty that the franchise still has wind in its sails. He insisted that rebooting Pirates of the Caribbean is a priority for the company on top of reworking many of its animated classics into live-action retellings.
"We think we have a really good, exciting story that honors the films that have come before but also has something new to say," Bailey told The New York Times in June.
Deadpool screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick were initially attached to write the script for the sixth installment of the swashbuckling series, but they walked the plank and exited the project in 2019. The Last of Us creator Craig Mazin then took over scriptwriting duties alongside original screenwriter Ted Elliot.
Mazin told the LA Times that he thought their pitch was "too weird," but Disney seemed to like it. He said they wrote a "fantastic script" before having to down tools due to the writers' strike. However, there has been no word on whether any progress has happened since the writers returned to work at the end of September.
Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on X/Twitter @AdeleAnkers.
