Pirates of the Caribbean’s next chapter is still undefined—and that uncertainty is now the story

Mo. Basuony

Published: January 24, 2026 7:38 PM ET

pirates of the caribbean

The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise is drifting in a rare kind of limbo: big enough to return at any moment, but complicated enough that every route forward creates a new fight over what fans think the series “is.” The tension isn’t just nostalgia versus reboot fatigue. It’s a structural problem—whether the next film should be a clean relaunch with a new crew, a soft continuation that reuses familiar faces, or two separate projects competing for the same oxygen. Until one direction wins on paper, everything else remains rumor-shaped.

A franchise caught between reboot logic and reunion demand

Disney’s modern franchise playbook favors re-entry points: new characters, new tone, a plot that doesn’t require homework. Pirates also has a different gravity than many brands because its iconography is so specific—sea-myth weirdness, comic menace, and a lead performance that defined the series’ rhythm.

That’s why the question of Captain Jack Sparrow keeps dominating any update, even when no casting announcements exist. A reboot without Jack risks feeling like “Pirates without the pirate,” while a return built around him risks reopening debates about creative direction, tone, and how to rebuild trust after years of stops and starts. Meanwhile, the franchise’s producer has repeatedly framed the next installment as dependent on one thing above all: a script that finally locks the door on indecision.

The same pressure applies to the long-discussed female-led concept linked to Margot Robbie. The idea has lingered in public consciousness long enough to become its own expectation, even as the broader development picture keeps shifting. The result is a franchise with multiple “next movies” in the public imagination—and no single, confirmed version that has stepped forward to own the timeline.

Scripts first, stars later: why Pirates 6 still hasn’t set sail

The clearest, consistent detail across recent producer updates is that the project remains in screenplay development, and it won’t move ahead until the creative team is satisfied with what’s on the page. At different points, the development path has included more than one script direction—a sign that the studio has been testing approaches rather than committing to a single blueprint.

Here’s what that means in practice:

No cast is officially announced. In a franchise this large, that silence usually indicates the script is still too fluid to anchor deals.
A “new take” has been teased without promising a full clean-slate reset. That phrasing suggests a blend: some familiar DNA, some new faces.
The Johnny Depp question remains unresolved publicly. The producer has expressed interest in his return and described it as contingent on how the role is written, but there’s no confirmed deal or announced involvement.
The Margot Robbie-related project remains a moving target. Even when described as still “involved” in some capacity, that doesn’t automatically translate into a greenlit film with dates, a director, or a locked script.

The larger reason this franchise is harder to restart than it looks is that Pirates isn’t just a setting—it’s a tonal tightrope. Lean too serious and it loses its mischievous pulse; lean too jokey and it becomes weightless spectacle. That tone problem is exactly the kind of issue a studio tries to solve in drafts, not in casting announcements.

Mini timeline of how the reboot debate got this tangled

2017: The last film releases, leaving the franchise without a clear next step.
2019–2024: Multiple development routes are discussed publicly, including a reboot concept and an alternate spin-focused approach.
2025: The producer emphasizes the screenplay as the gatekeeper and signals that more than one script idea has been in play.
Late 2025–early 2026: Interest spikes again as audiences look for confirmation of which direction will actually be filmed.
Forward-looking line: The first concrete sign of momentum won’t be a rumor—it will be a finalized script package that triggers real casting and a production window.

For now, Pirates of the Caribbean is still a franchise defined by what it could be rather than what it is next. The moment a single version becomes official—reboot, reunion, or something in between—the noise will collapse into one story. Until then, uncertainty isn’t a side note. It’s the headline.