Jerry Bruckheimer Refutes Margot Robbie’s Claim That Female-Led ‘Pirates Of The Caribbean’ Is Dead In The Water, Provides Update On Johnny Depp’s Status
Producer Jerry Bruckheimer claims that the female-led Pirates of the Caribbean film with Margot Robbie at the helm is far from dead in the water despite the actress’ previous comments.
Robbie told Vanity Fair just a little over a month ago that the film had been taken to Davy Jones’ locker saying, “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.”
The film had previously been announced by The Hollywood Reporter back in June 2020 with the outlet describing it as a “female-fronted Pirates of the Caribbean for Disney.”
They also noted it would be “a wholly original story with new characters under the Pirates moniker.”
RELATED: Margot Robbie Confirms Disney’s Female-Led ‘Pirates Of The Caribbean’ Film No Longer Setting Sail
Robbie would confirm the project’s existence while discussing it with Collider in November 2020. She told the outlet, “A lot of girl power. It’s too early to talk about it but I appreciate that you’re psyched on the combo. I love Christina obviously. I’m not a producer on Pirates, so I’ll sit back and kind of wait for the process the way you’re allowed to do as an actor, which is nice.”
She added, “I don’t have to stress about it just yet. We’re really, really excited at the prospect of kind of adding a very key female element to that world.”
Bruckheimer provided an update on the film back in May of this year with The Times in the UK confirming that he was indeed developing a script for a Pirates film with Margot Robbie as the lead.
He said, “Yes. We’re talking to Margot Robbie. We are developing two Pirates scripts — one with her, one without.”
He would initially refute Robbie’s claim the film was dead speaking to Collider earlier this month saying, “I think that that script will come forward at a certain point.”
“We developed two different stories for Pirates and the other one’s going forward first,” he added. “So that’s what we’re working on, to try to get that one made.”
Now, Bruckheimer has provided a lengthier update while speaking to The Hollywood Reporter. When asked about the number of iterations the sixth Pirates film has gone through and why it’s so tough to crack Bruckheimer answered, “Oh God, they’re all hard. I think we’re getting very close on that one, too. We have a very good script. We developed two of them — the one with Margot Robbie and one with a younger cast. The Margot Robbie one needs a little more work. The younger cast one is close. Hopefully we’ll get both of them.”
He then specifically answered a question about Robbie’s comments to Vanity Fair claiming the film was dead, “It’s alive for me. It’s alive for Disney. I’m sure she was disappointed it didn’t go first — or maybe not because she’s very busy, so it might be a blessing to push this a bit. We believe we’ll get it made. It’s a very strong story.”
As for the possibility of Johnny Depp returning, Bruckheimer previously indicated to The Times in UK he was out. When asked if the actor would be back he answered, “Not at this point.”
However, he did leave the door open saying, “The future is yet to be decided.”
When asked about the possibility of Depp returning by The Hollywood Reporter, he punted and put the responsibility for the decision on Disney, “You’d have to ask them. I can’t answer that question. I really don’t know. I would love to have him in the movie. He’s a friend, a terrific actor and it’s unfortunate that personal lives creep into everything we do.”
Bruckheimer did reveal that if Depp does return as Jack Sparrow they would not kill off the character, “You can’t. We tried to kill him. It didn’t work.”
What do you make of Bruckheimer’s comments about the Margot Robbie led Pirates of the Caribbean film still being alive?
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