The Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise has been one of the most successful things that Disney has ever produced. More than one of the films have grossed over $1 billion at the global box office, so it's certainly no shock that Disney wants to keep the series going, even if the plan at this point is to reboot the franchise with a brand new lead character. Exactly what the fate of Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow would be had been unclear, though it seems now to be confirmed that we won't be seeing him again, even in a cameo, as just that idea has reportedly been floated, and rejected.
There are, as far as we can tell, a pair of Pirates of the Caribbean movies currently in early development. One is being written by Birds of Prey scribe Christina Hodson and is set to star Margot Robbie, while another is being handled by screenwriters Ted Elliot and Craig Mazin. While neither projects was set to star Johnny Depp's character, it was unclear if the plan for one, or both, of these movies was to be true reboots, starting the story off from scratch in an entirely new universe, or if they might be more like spinoffs, that simply focused on new characters within the same world as the previous films. Some fans of Captain Jack hoped that If it was the latter, then there was at least a chance that Depp might appear, even if he wasn't the main character.
A recent look at Johnny Depp's career, and associated legal troubles, by THR, has revealed that Pirates of the Caribbean franchise producer Jerry Bruckheimer, who has remained a staunch ally of Depp, wanted to get the actor into a cameo in the next Pirates film, which according to the report is the one starring Margot Robbie, but Disney has apparently already shot down this idea.
This would seem to confirm once and for all that Captain Jack Sparrow is well and truly done. While it's certainly still possible that one or both movies will take place within the same universe, and we might see other characters from the franchise appear, don't expect to see Johnny Depp be one of them.
This will surely disappoint some as Johnny Depp clearly still has a lot of support, and divorced from the actor's personal life, Captain Jack Sparrow is still a quite popular character. Depp was nominated for an Oscar for the performance the first time around, and Sparrow was certainly a big part of creating the tone of the franchise that resonated so well with fans.
Considering we have basically no idea when we'll see the next Pirates movie, it's always possible that by the time we get there Disney's position on this will change, but as it currently stands, it appears we've seen the last of Captain Jack Sparrow.
