Johnny Depp NOT Returning To 'Pirates of the Caribbean' Franchise

Don’t believe the rumors.

Earlier this morning, the Australian tabloid site Poptopic posted an article quoting an “industry insider close to Disney” with information about a potential new deal being brokered between the House of Mouse and Johnny Depp to have him return to the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Shortly after, nearly every major news website in the world took this rumor and ran with it.

Here’s the thing though: Depp isn’t returning. And according to E! a source connected to the actor reportedly told NBC News that “this is made up.”

Some sites are hanging on the fact that both reps for Depp and Disney have yet to respond publicly; however, during his recent, very public defamation case against Amber Heard Depp had no shame in stating that he refused to return to the franchise. During the trial, he told Amber Heard’s attorney he had no desire to reprise the role – even “if Disney came to [him] with $300 million and a million alpacas.“

Now, interestingly enough Poptopic says that Disney is preparing a deal for $301 million – $1 million more than what he was asked about on the record. What are the odds of that? If that doesn’t tell you how nonsensical this rumor is then perhaps this bit of info will: no actor has ever been paid more than $100 million for a single movie. Even Depp was originally paid $90 million for each of his Pirates films amounting to $450 million over the course of 14 years.

While it was also recently revealed he’d closed a deal to appear in a sixth movie and that he was also planning to help co-write the film, some execs believe that there is still a chance he can return. But I think his comments during the trial prove that he’s still not ready to forgive Disney and may never be fully able to.

Depp originally garnered an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of the iconic Jack Sparrow in the first Pirates of the Caribbean.

The franchise originated with the Pirates of the Caribbean theme ride attraction, which opened at Disneyland in 1967, the last Disney theme park attraction overseen by Walt Disney. The attraction can be found at four Disney theme parks. Since then, it has become a moneymaker, the five films have grossed over $4.5 billion at the worldwide box office. The franchise has also become a revenue booster in video games, merchandise, and more.

While both film projects remain in development, a fun piece of information I shared on The DisInsider Show during our “Rumor of the Week” segment, is that Disney has put a Pirates of the Caribbean Disney+ on the drawing board and are in very early development stages. At this time, I don’t have any further information on this project as it is still in the early stages.

SOURCE: E!