Johnny Depp’s One Condition to Return as Jack Sparrow in ‘Pirates 6‘

Johnny Depp is open to reprising his role as Captain Jack Sparrow should Pirates of the Caribbean return but for one reason.

In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, the actor explained what would be his motivating factor to don the pirate hat again.

“If things are exactly where they need to be with regard to how they are going to top off the Pirates franchise… the only involvement I really want to have, truly, is just to send them off on a better note,” the actor said.

He continued, “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.”

Depp headlined the five Pirates of the Caribbean films that released from 2003 to 2017.

Bruckheimer, who produced all five previous films, previously told The Hollywood Reporter in 2022 that they were “getting very close” with Pirates 6 and even had a “very good script.” The producer also noted that Pirates would be rebooted “so that is easier to put together“ given “you don’t have to wait for certain actors.”

The last Pirates of the Caribbean movie, Dead Men Tell No Tales, was released was in 2017 and starred Depp, Javier Bardem and Kaya Scodelario, as well as returning franchise cast members Geoffrey Rush, Orlando Bloom, and Keira Knightley.

Bruckheimer has been candid about work on a new Pirates film which would have Jeff Nathanson writing the script. Another reported film, penned by Christina Hodson from Birds of Prey, was to star Margot Robbie. In her Vanity Fair 2022 cover story Robbie said of the film, “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.”

However, Bruckheimer has said he still intended on getting a reboot and Robbie‘s film made: “We hope to get ’em both made, and I think Disney agrees they really want to make the Margot one, too,” Bruckheimer told Entertainment Weekly.

“I think he’s cracked it,” Bruckheimer also told EW 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 previously told EW that he would welcome Depp to return to the role and had conversations with the actor about it. “It’s a reboot, but if it was up to me, he would be in it,” Bruckheimer said. “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. That was his interpretation of Jack Sparrow.”