The female-led Pirates of the Caribbean spinoff may not be dead in the water after all. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer told The Hollywood Reporter on Monday that the spinoff starring Margot Robbie will still happen, it just needs some more time.
“It’s alive for me. It’s alive for Disney. I’m sure she was disappointed it didn’t go first — or maybe not because she’s very busy, so it might be a blessing to push this a bit. We believe we’ll get it made. It’s a very strong story,” Bruckheimer said.
The iconic producer, who was behind this year’s Top Gun: Maverick, was responsible for the previous five Pirates of the Caribbean movies. He also noted that Disney is developing a separate Pirates movie “with a younger cast” and that he hopes both projects will come to fruition.
In November, Robbie said in a Vanity Fair interview that she thought Disney called it quits on her movie. She was supposed to star in the film, which would be helmed by Birds of Prey writer Christina Hodson, The Hollywood Reporter noted in 2020. The story wouldn’t have included Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow or other familiar Pirates characters, the outlet noted at the time.
“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,” Robbie told Vanity Fair.
Disney didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Pirates of the Caribbean films were inspired by Disney’s theme park ride of the same name. Disney produced five films starring Depp as Sparrow over the span of 14 years. The second movie, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, was its most successful, grossing more than $1 billion at the box office in 2006. Disney released the last film, Dead Men Tell No Tales, in 2017.
