Disney is working to revive the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, according to a franchise executive .

Sean Bailey, president of film production at Walt Disney Studios , said in an interview with The New York Times that rebooting Pirates of the Caribbean is a priority for the company , in addition to generating more live-action films of its animated classics, for example, like The Little Mermaid , his most recent work.

“We think we have a really good, exciting story that honors the previous films, but also has something new to say,” Bailey said of the potential Pirates of the Caribbean resurrection. However, when the topic of Johnny Depp’s return as Captain Jack Sparrow was brought up, the executive went off on a tangent saying that he “will not be commenting at this time.”

In 2022 it was reported that Depp walked the plank for Pirates of the Caribbean and would not return for the franchise’s sixth film. And the actor was involved in a major scandal following a $100 million defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife, Amber Heard, after she wrote an opinion piece in The Washington Post , in which she talked about the domestic violence she allegedly suffered during her relationship with Depp ; lawsuit that, by the way, the actor won.

But the damage to his acting career had already been done. During questioning at the trial, Depp acknowledged that Disney left him out of Pirates of the Caribbean six days after the aforementioned op-ed was published. He also went so far as to say that “nothing on this earth” would make him reprise his role as Jack Sparrow for Disney.

Jerry Bruckheimer, longtime producer of the Pirates of the Caribbean films, said Depp was not involved in the sixth film, nor its sequel, but his absence from the franchise remains uncertain. “The future is yet to be decided,” he said at the time.

What is true is that the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise is constantly changing, Bruckheimer previously said that the female spin-off, starring Margot Robbie, was not completely dead.