Here’s some sad news for all the Johnny Depp lovers- Depp will not be coming back in his iconic role of Captain Jack Sparrow from the franchise of Pirates of the Caribbean. This was confirmed by Sean Bailey, the film production chief of Disney. In one of his interviews, Bailey was asked if the Pirates of the Caribbean reboot could work without Depp. His reply was, “We want to bring in a new energy and vitality. I love the [Pirates] movies, but part of the reason Paul and Rhett are so interesting is that we want to give it a kick in the pants. And that’s what I’ve tasked them with.” Johnny Depp has played the character of Captain Jack Sparrow in five films of the franchise across fifteen years but sadly, he is out of the upcoming project. The ‘Pirates…’ reboot is to be written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick.
The reports of Johnny Depp not being in the reboot started surfacing during October in a red carpet interview where Stuart Beatties, the screenwriter of the original film, called Depp’s time on the franchise as a “great run”. He suggested that Johnny Depp’s time as the star of the ‘Pirates…’ series is nearing its end. He further said, “Obviously, he’s made that character his own, and it’s become the thing that he’s most famous for now. And kids all over the world love him as that character, so I think it’s been great for him. It’s been great for us, so I’m just very, very happy about it”.
The films of the ‘Pirates…’ franchise have minted more than USD 4.5 billion, which has successfully made it the twelfth biggest franchise of all times. ‘The Curse of the Black Pearl’, the first movie of the series hit the theatres in the year 2003 and in 2017, we got ‘Dead Men Tell No Tales’, the most recent film of the franchise.
Johnny Depp, 55, is all set to be seen in the Harry Potter prequel ‘Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald’. The actor has to go through heavy criticism and backlash because of the claims of domestic violence reported by his ex-wife Amber Heard. There were counterclaims of financial blackmail as well.
The finances of the actor have also become a subject of scrutiny after Johnny Depp’s former bodyguards filed a lawsuit by attacking Depp’s wages record and working conditions. Last year in July, a crew member sued him for allegedly punching the member on the set of a film based on Notorious BIG’s murder. The planned release of the film was shelved after a month.
