After five movies with Captain Jack Sparrow, Disney was finding a way to continue the franchise anew with the Pirates of the Caribbean series. As Johnny Depp got older for big-budget action movies and after having a very public image battle, it was announced back in 2020 that a new continuity of movies in the world of Pirates would go on with Margot Robbie as the new lead.
Now, Variety is reporting that the planned sequel with Robbie is no longer in development. The movie was to be written by the screenwriter of Robbie’s Harley Quinn film, Birds of Prey, Christina Hodson. Vanity Fair’s latest issue features Margot Robbie as a cover story, and the Oscar-nominated actress reveals through the article how the studio dropped their plans.
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.”
In addition to Robbie’s Pirates, it was also announced in 2020 that one of the former franchise writers, Ted Elliot, and Chornobyl’s Craig Mazin, would be making another reboot separate from Robbie’s version. The producer of the franchise, Jerry Bruckheimer, would also be involved with both films. When Bruckheimer talked about the development of the sequels, he addressed Jack Sparrow‘s involvement, “Yes. We’re talking to Margot Robbie. We are developing two Pirates scripts — one with her, one without. [Will Depp be back?] Not at this point. The future is yet to be decided.”
Variety has reached out to the studio for a comment and has yet to receive a response. You can currently see Margot Robbie join Christian Bale and John David Washington in the David O’ Russell film Amsterdam, which has recently been made available on demand. Robbie can also be seen in the upcoming ode to classic Hollywood in Damien Chazelle’s Babylon on December 23.