Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski rules out return: ‘I just don’t have anything’

Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski will not return to the franchise.

The 61-year-old filmmaker helmed the original swashbuckling trilogy from 2003’s The Curse of the Black Pearl to At World’s End in 2007, and with a sixth installment in the works, Verbinski has definitively ruled himself out of helming another Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

Speaking with Screen Rant, the Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die director said: “I wish them the best. I just don't have anything.

“I feel like I did three and, for me, it was a great opportunity to learn and to try something. I think we have to be at a place where the wheels are about to fall off.

“I think once you kind of know how to do something, it becomes less interesting or less dangerous. There's just so little time and there are so many stories to tell.”

Disney is currently working on a sixth Pirates of the Caribbean movie, with series producer Jerry Bruckheimer confirming late last year he was involved in the project.

The 82-year-old producer told Variety: “We’re developing another Top Gun. Hopefully we’ll make another F1. We’re working on another Pirates.

“We’re working on a lot of different movies that have become successful and hopefully we can get ’em all made.”

The Pirates of the Caribbean series ran from 2003’s The Curse of the Black Pearl to 2017’s Dead Men Tell No Tales, and featured Johnny Depp, 62, as Captain Jack Sparrow in all five movies.

The franchise was put on hold in December 2018 when Depp was dropped following an op-ed by his ex-wife Amber Heard, 39, in The Washington Post, in which she alleged being a victim of domestic violence without naming him directly.

Depp was later cleared of those allegations in court.

Since then, Disney has explored rebooting the series, reportedly with Margot Robbie, 35, attached to star.

However, it was reported in December 2024 the studio was considering bringing Depp back for a sixth film.

At the time, Disney had supposedly not contacted the actor and had tasked Bruckheimer with developing two potential scripts - one featuring Jack Sparrow, and one without him.

Since then, Bruckheimer confirmed Robbie was “still involved” in a Pirates of the Caribbean reboot.

He told TheWrap: “We’re working on a script. It’s always on the page; if we don’t have it on the page, it’s not gonna get on the screen.

“We had two scripts at one point, and then one kinda dropped out, and then we kinda went on with the other one.”


Meanwhile, Orlando Bloom - who portrayed Will Turner in the original trilogy - recently teased “maybe there’s a world where we get the band back together” for a sixth Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

The 49-year-old actor told Deadline: “I do think that people are really responding to nostalgia in a way at the moment.

“There's something about stepping into the world of artificial intelligence and superintelligence, where we're kind of harking back to nostalgic times and movies that had that.

“Maybe there’s a world where we get the band back together.”

However, Bloom’s co-star Keira Knightley - who played Will Turner’s lover Elizabeth Swann - has firmly ruled out returning to Pirates of the Caribbean.

The 40-year-old actress explained to People: “You know I think my pirating days are over.

“I think I definitely spent many years doing that and, you know, it was amazing and I’m very pleased to have been a part of that, but I suspect that my swashbuckling days are done.”