Producer Jerry Bruckheimer says a new “reboot” of the hit “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie is in the works while indicating that he won’t be waiting around for the original film’s big stars to join in.
“It’s hard to tell. You don’t know, you really don’t know,” the 80-year-old Hollywood filmmaker told ComicBook.com when asked about the future of the franchise.
“You don’t know how they come together. You just don’t know. 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 was referring to “Tom Cruise” reprising his iconic role in the 1989 “Top Gun” film for the 2022 sequel, “Top Gun: Maverick,” which earned close to $1.5 billion worldwide and was the most successful film of Cruise’s career.
Meanwhile, Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise has five films in total, and rumors of more have been circulating for a while. Johnny Depp has led the cast of all the films so far as Captain Jack Sparrow, but he has since said he would not return to the franchise even for “$300 million and a million alpacas.” Depp was unhappy with how Disney treated him during his high-profile trial following abuse claims from his ex-wife, Amber Heard.
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Bruckheimer has alluded to “Pirates” reboots before, including one led by Margot Robbie. The actress told Vanity Fair in 2022 that the project was dead in the water, but Bruckheimer later said it would eventually be made even if other iterations were put out first. “The script will come forward at some point,” he said, per Variety.
There were also rumors that a sixth film was allegedly written by Craig Mazin and Ted Elliott. Elliot was a co-writer on the first four films.
Mazin said last year that he was surprised Disney agreed to the sixth installment, admitting it was “weird.”
“We pitched it and thought there’s no way they’re buying it, it’s too weird. And they did! And then [we] wrote a fantastic script and the strike happened and everyone’s waiting around” the writer told The Los Angeles Times.
The “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise has grossed more than $4.5 billion worldwide, making it the 16th most profitable franchise ever.