Jack Sparrow’s Pirates 6 Return in Talks — What It Means for His Video Game Legacy

Jack Sparrow may finally be sailing back into the spotlight. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer told Deadline at Disney’s D23 event that Johnny Depp is in active talks to reprise Captain Jack Sparrow for a sixth “Pirates of the Caribbean” film, with a screenplay currently in development. “We’re talking with Johnny [Depp], we’re working on a screenplay, and hopefully we can get this done,” Bruckheimer said, though he stopped short of confirming a signed deal.

For gamers, the update lands as more than Hollywood gossip. Jack Sparrow has had one of the busiest afterlives of any live-action character in interactive media, and any real-world comeback for Depp inevitably reopens questions about who, or what likeness, represents the captain the next time he turns up in a game.

Bruckheimer’s D23 Update on Pirates of the Caribbean 6

Bruckheimer told Deadline that “we’re talking with Johnny [Depp], we’re working on a screenplay, and hopefully we can get this done.” The comment came during a carpet interview following his Disney Legends tribute at the fan expo. Longtime “Pirates of the Caribbean” producer Jerry Bruckheimer revealed that Johnny Depp is currently in talks to return for the long-developing sixth installment of the blockbuster franchise.

Separately, TheWrap reports that the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise has been on ice since its fifth entry, “Dead Men Tell No Tales,” opened in 2017, with “Deadpool” writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick initially hired for a follow-up before Craig Mazin and Ted Elliott were reported to have taken over duties. Development has dragged on for years, with Bruckheimer telling Entertainment Weekly back in 2025 that producers were still refining the script.

Margot Robbie’s Role and the Franchise’s $4.5 Billion Question

Deadline notes that sources close to the project indicate the next film “won’t feel like just the nth tale of Captain Jack Sparrow, rather the next chapter will focus on Margot Robbie’s protagonist with Sparrow as a side character.” That would mark a structural shift for a franchise that has always centred on Depp’s performance since 2003.

The stakes are considerable. “Dead Men Tell No Tales” was the lowest grossing entry in the franchise at $795.9 million worldwide, while the five films together have minted $4.5 billion at the global box office. Any sixth entry, with or without Depp front and centre, carries enormous commercial weight for Disney.

Jack Sparrow Never Actually Left, He Just Stopped Sounding Like Depp

While the movie franchise stalled, Captain Jack Sparrow kept working steadily across video games, just without Depp’s own voice. Disney formally severed ties with the actor in 2020 following the Amber Heard litigation, but that never stopped his likeness from powering the character on screen.

Voice actor Jared Butler has effectively become Sparrow’s in-game stand-in. Butler, an actor Disney game fans may be familiar with, has voiced Jack Sparrow in Kingdom Hearts III, Disney Infinity, and Sea of Thieves, with his recreation of the character considered spot on. Butler’s own credits stretch back further still. He has vocally portrayed Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, Pirates of the Caribbean Online, Disney Infinity, Kingdom Hearts III, and Sea of Thieves: A Pirate’s Life.

Kingdom Hearts III leaned heavily on Sparrow’s likeness for its Caribbean world, which reimagines the pirate setting first seen as Port Royal in Kingdom Hearts II, with Sora, Donald Duck and Goofy teaming up with Captain Jack Sparrow as he escapes Davy Jones’ Locker. Rare’s Sea of Thieves later gave the character a fresh audience through its “A Pirate’s Life” crossover, built entirely around Butler’s vocal performance rather than Depp’s.

Read also: Kingdom Hearts 4 Directors Shut Down Delay Talk: ‘That Is Not Happening’

What a Depp Deal Could Mean for Future Disney Crossovers

If Depp does sign on for Pirates 6, it would not automatically change how games have handled the character since 2020. Square Enix has no announced plans to revisit the Caribbean world for Kingdom Hearts IV, and Rare’s Sea of Thieves crossover content already shipped years ago using Butler’s performance.

Still, a genuine Depp comeback would be the clearest signal yet that Disney is willing to rehabilitate the character commercially across its wider portfolio, film and games included. For now, the studio has made no comment on the casting talks, and TheWrap notes that representatives for Depp, Bruckheimer and Disney did not respond to a request for comment on the report.

Fans across New Zealand and Australia who grew up with the original trilogy, and later met Jack Sparrow again through Kingdom Hearts III or Sea of Thieves on PlayStation, Xbox and PC, will now be watching whether a finished screenplay, and a finished deal, actually materialises before any of this reaches a cinema or console near them.