Disney isn’t done plundering the Pirates of the Caribbean chest. Not even close. According to The InSneider, the studio has pushed the reboot to the top of the pile under new CEO Josh D’Amaro, and the creative shuffle alone tells you this one is going to be big.
Krysty Wilson-Cairns, best known for writing 1917 and teaming with Taika Waititi on his upcoming Star Wars project, is now on board the ship and manning the wheel. The move also signals that Disney wants a script with shape, not just ships and shouting. Franchise mainstay Ted Elliott already laid groundwork on the screenplay, with Wilson-Cairns stepping in to finish the job.
According to reports, the story centers on Jack Sparrow’s son and a new character played by Margot Robbie. This isn’t the abandoned spinoff you heard reports about years ago. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer shut that down in October 2025 when he said, “She’s still involved.” One version of Pirates 6 survived development. This is it.
Johnny Depp’s status remains undecided, though the door isn’t locked. The current setup allows Sparrow to appear without carrying the whole movie. Bruckheimer has backed Depp’s return for years and told EW that Depp would come back if the script worked.
Depp last played Sparrow in 2017’s Dead Men Tell No Tales. Since then, he’s worked outside the studio system on films like Minamata and City of Lies, and directed Modi, which premiered at the San Sebastian Film Festival. Right now, he’s filming Ti West’s Ebeneezer: A Christmas Carol for Paramount, his first major studio role in almost ten years.
You probably feel split about all this. The franchise hasn’t landed cleanly since the 2003 original, and plenty of fans checked out after the fifth film. Still, reboots (or in this case, a revival) keep happening because money keeps agreeing. The smart move here isn’t pretending Jack Sparrow never existed. It’s letting the world grow while keeping a familiar shadow on deck.
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