Johnny Depp Appearance In Pirates 6 Being Fought For By Co-Star
Will this former co-stars opinion sway Disney on Johnny Depp's future in Pirates 6?
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Even though the giant’s share of the credit for the success enjoyed by Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean franchise goes to actor Johnny Depp, there is certainly no hope now that the sixth film in the series will see him reprise his beloved character of Captain Jack Sparrow. Despite that, at least one of Depp’s former co-stars in the franchise strongly believes that the actor should be in Pirates of the Caribbean 6 to conclude the franchise’s storyline that began with him as the key character.
In a recent chat with Express, Greg Ellis, who has played the character of Lt. Groves in the Pirates of the Caribbean films, shared that even though Disney has confirmed that Johnny Depp is no longer a part of the franchise, the next film in the series needs to bring him back for tying up its loose ends. Depp not being there as Jack Sparrow in the final film is like “not having Captain Kirk in [the original] Star Trek”
In a perfect world, that’s how the franchise would have wrapped up its current storyline–with Jack Sparrow seeing it through the end. But back in 2018, when domestic violence allegations against Johnny Depp surfaced, studio’s production chief, Sean Bailey, confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that neither the sequel to Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales nor the spin-off set to star Margot Robbie and written by Christina Hodson will feature Jack Sparrow.
Then last year, it was speculated that the upcoming films in the franchise might at least include a cameo by Johnny Depp. But soon The Hollywood Reporter revealed that the same idea has already been pitched by franchise producer Jerry Bruckheimer and it was reportedly shot down by Disney. But even though Disney has parted with the actor who made Pirates of the Caribbean one of the highest-grossing film franchises and Depp has also lost other projects as well, Greg Ellis believes that soon he will be back on the silver screen.
“Do I think he’s going to come back? Yes. To what degree, I’m not sure.[There’s] this reputation savaging that’s going on, this victimhood culture where victimhood is the new social currency and its economy is booming, and it’s been inflated,” he said.
Though the next films in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise will most probably not include Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow, the slow pace with which they are being developed hints at the difficulties the studio is facing in getting the projects off the ground in the first place. The last development in the spin-off film was in June 2020 when it was announced that Margot Robbie and Christina Hodson are re-teaming for the second time after DC’s Birds of Prey. The same goes for the sixth Pirates of the Caribbean film which was being rumored to be a reboot, but this was back in May 2020. Much may have changed behind the scenes since then.
There has also been a petition making the rounds since November 2020 to bring Johnny Depp back to the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise and it has recently reached its goal of 500,000 signatures. But now, the benchmark has been shifted to one million signatures and it looks like the petition will soon achieve this milestone as well. Whether that will be enough to budge Disney is something only the future will tell.
