IS JACK BACK? Jerry Bruckheimer may have just hinted at Johnny Depp's RETURN to 'Pirates of the Caribbean'
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Producer Jerry Bruckheimer expressed his desire to bring back Johnny Depp as the beloved Jack Sparrow in 'Pirates of the Carribean'. The 59-year-old actor, who on December 19 negotiated a $1 million settlement with his ex-wife Amber Heard over his defamation action against her, appeared to have Bruckheimer's support in his return to the movie series.
There was speculation that Depp might be returning to the franchise after his name was discovered on a call sheet, but it was later revealed that he would not be part of the sixth installment of the 'Pirates' series. "I would love to have him in the movie," Bruckheimer told The Hollywood Reporter while discussing the possibility of a sixth Pirates film. "He's a friend, a terrific actor and it's unfortunate that personal lives creep into everything we do," the 79-year-old added.
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Bruckheimer was asked earlier in the interview if he thought Disney would let Depp star in another 'Pirates' movie. "You'd have to ask them. I can't answer that question. I really don't know," he said. The producer also addressed Depp's earlier assertions that if he returned for a sixth and final installment, the movie would have to kill off his Captain Jack Sparrow character. "You can't. We tried to kill him. It didn't work,' Bruckheimer said.
Depp played Captain Jack Sparrow in all five of the Pirates movies from 2003's 'The Curse of the Black Pearl' through 2017's 'Dead Men Tell No Tales.' Recent years have seen Depp dealing with accusations of domestic violence from his ex-wife Amber Heard. Following the publication of an article calling him a "wife beater," Depp filed a defamation lawsuit against The Sun in 2018. The claim was found to be "substantially true" by a UK court.
Depp then filed a defamation lawsuit against Heard in Virginia court earlier this year, alleging that in a 2018 Washington Post op-ed headed “I spoke up against sexual violence – and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change”. The jury finally voted in favor of Depp, but they also upheld Heard's counterclaim that Depp's attorney had defamed her by calling her allegations of abuse a "hoax."
Heard disclosed that she had reached a settlement with Depp on December 19, as reported by The Independent. “After a great deal of deliberation I have made a very difficult decision to settle the defamation case brought against me by my ex-husband in Virginia,” she wrote on Instagram. “It’s important for me to say that I never chose this. I defended my truth and in doing so my life as I knew it was destroyed."
"The vilification I have faced on social media is an amplified version of the ways in which women are re-victimised when they come forward. I have made no admission,” she continued. “This is not an act of concession. There are no restrictions or gags with respect to my voice moving forward.”