Johnny Depp wasn’t just ready to play Jack Sparrow one last time—he wanted to help write ‘Pirates 6.’ So why didn’t Disney let him craft the perfect ending for the beloved pirate?
Johnny Depp didn’t just play Captain Jack Sparrow; he became him. The eyeliner, the slurred one-liners, the impossible escapes? All him. For nearly two decades, he was the heart of Pirates of the Caribbean. But when Disney cut him loose, he never got the chance to sail Jack Sparrow into the sunset the way he envisioned.
Turns out, Depp wasn’t just ready to play Jack Sparrow one last time. He wanted to write his farewell. During his 2022 defamation trial, he spilled the details. Per Screen Rant, which cited CBS News‘ livestream of the court proceedings, he said:
“I didn’t quite understand how after that long relationship and quite a successful relationship, certainly for Disney, that suddenly I was guilty until proven innocent… I, in fact, had been approached to take part in writing Pirates 6… my feeling was that these characters should be able to have their proper goodbye, as it were. A franchise can only last for so long, and there’s a way to end a franchise like that. And I thought that the characters deserved… to end their franchise on a very good note. I planned on continuing until it was time to stop.”
Translation: He had a vision. A proper ending. One that didn’t involve Jack Sparrow ghosting the franchise with no explanation.
Depp first staggered onto screens as Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl in 2003. Disney execs were skeptical at first – why was he acting drunk? Why was he so weird? But audiences loved it. The film crushed the box office, Depp got an Oscar nomination, and suddenly, Pirates was a juggernaut.
He kept the magic going through Dead Man’s Chest, At World’s End, and On Stranger Tides. But by the time Dead Men Tell No Tales rolled around in 2017, the franchise was running out of gas. The film still made money, but critics weren’t impressed. Disney, however, was determined to keep the ship afloat.
Then, 2018 happened.
That year, Depp’s ex-wife Amber Heard published an op-ed that set off a media firestorm. Before anything was proven, Disney pulled the plug. No trial, no second chances. Just like that, Pirates 6 became a Jack Sparrow-free zone.
Depp wasn’t thrilled. He had spent years bringing Pirates to life, only to be cut loose at the first sign of controversy. And just when he was gearing up to craft the perfect send-off? Brutal.
Despite firing the franchise’s biggest draw, Disney still pushed forward. They announced a Margot Robbie-led spinoff, penned by Birds of Prey screenwriter Christina Hodson. But after the initial buzz? Crickets. Meanwhile, Warner Bros. also dropped Depp, replacing him as Gellert Grindelwald in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore.
As for Depp, he made one thing clear, he was done with Disney. No Jack Sparrow cameo. No surprise return. If Disney wanted to sail the Pirates ship without him, they were on their own.
