Margot Robbie’s PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN Movie Gets an Update from Producer Jerry Bruckheimer

For over twenty years, Pirates of the Caribbean has been one of Disney’s crown jewel franchises, but it’s been eight long years since we last set sail with Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.

Since then, Disney has toyed with several new directions for the series, and one of the most talked about was a reboot starring Margot Robbie. While updates on that project have been scarce, producer Jerry Bruckheimer has now confirmed that it’s still in play.

Speaking with The Wrap, Bruckheimer shared:

“We had two scripts at one point, and then one kind of dropped out and we kind of went with the other one. [Margot Robbie’s] still involved … [Pirates of the Caribbean veteran Ted Elliott] worked on [the script], and we’ve brought someone else in to fill in the blanks.”

That’s a promising sign for fans who assumed Robbie’s swashbuckling adventure had quietly sunk.

Of course, any talk of a new Pirates movie inevitably leads to questions about Johnny Depp and whether Captain Jack Sparrow will make a comeback.

Bruckheimer isn’t shutting the door, saying he’s open to working with Depp again if the actor likes the script. Jack Sparrow is undeniably the face of the franchise, but there’s also a strong case for letting the character rest and allowing a new lead to take the wheel.

Robbie certainly has the chops to anchor a blockbuster series of her own. While her recent film A Big Bold Beautiful Journey stumbled at the box office, she just came off the billion-dollar success of Barbie and previously carried multiple DC movies as Harley Quinn. She’s proven she can handle quirky, larger-than-life roles, and a pirate queen could be a perfect fit.

A fresh face might also be exactly what Pirates needs to get back in the good graces of of fans and critics. The last two films, On Stranger Tides (33% on Rotten Tomatoes) and Dead Men Tell No Tales (30%), left fans underwhelmed and saw diminishing box office returns.

While On Stranger Tides crossed the billion-dollar mark, Dead Men Tell No Tales dipped to $794.8 million, the lowest take since The Curse of the Black Pearl. Disney isn’t just looking to revive the series for one movie, they want to reignite the entire franchise, and a poorly received installment could kill that momentum.

At the moment, it seems only one new Pirates of the Caribbean film is moving forward, and that’s the one with Robbie attached. A full-on reboot with her as the lead would give Disney a chance to reimagine the franchise from the ground up. Whether Depp ends up appearing or not, it’s clear Disney wants the next film to chart a bold new course.