While the franchise started losing its appeal as time passed, Disney still found massive success with its Pirates of the Caribbean movies.
Johnny Depp deserves much of the credit for that, but Amber Heard's allegations of domestic violence and a series of messy court battles led to Disney scrapping plans for a sixth movie. Depp's Hollywood career was put on hold and the studio went back to the drawing board with the franchise.
It's unclear exactly who is developing the next iteration, though the expectation is that the spotlight will shift to another character in place of the iconic Captain Jack Sparrow.
Talking to ET Online, Pirates of the Caribbean producer Jerry Bruckheimer made it clear that, he at least, is willing to bring Depp back into the fold.
"If it was up to me, of course. I love having Depp," he said. "He's a great actor and good friend...I've certainly spoken to him, but we'll see what happens."
In a separate conversation with Entertainment Weekly, Bruckheimer also confirmed that Disney is still developing the Margot Robbie-led spin-off. "It's two different movies," he started. "We hope to get 'em both made, and I think Disney agrees they really want to make the Margot one, too."
Dead Men Tell No Tales scribe Jeff Nathanson is penning the Depp-less reboot and it sounds like work is progressing relatively well. "He’s got an amazing third act. We just gotta clean up the first and second and then we’ll get there. But he wrote a great, great third act," Bruckheimer said.
This comes after rumours that Disney might be zeroing in on its new leads. According to The DisInsider, Oscar-nominated Elvis and Dune: Part Two star Austin Butler is being eyed for a role in the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie.
This comes after reports The Bear's Ayo Edebiri is in talks for a role and a claim from scooper @MyTimeToShineH that Hawkeye star Hailee Steinfeld is also in line to board the project.
"Hurt. Blinding hurt. It was like somebody hit me in the back of the head with a 2x4," Depp previously said of Disney's decision to fire him. "Captain Jack Sparrow was a character I built from the ground up and was something that I, of course, put a lot of [myself] into the character and also having worked on these films with these people and added much of myself, much of my own re-writing of the dialogue and scenes and jokes."
"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," he added. "There was a very deep and distinct feeling of having been betrayed by the people that I had been working with, the people I had worked hard for, people I had delivered a character to that they initially despised."
The original series followed the adventures of Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp), with Hector Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), Will Turner (Orlando Bloom), Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley), and Joshamee Gibbs (Kevin McNally).
The franchise kicked off in 2003 with Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, a movie that grossed $654 million worldwide. After the first instalment's success, Disney forged ahead with two sequels, including 2006's Dead Man's Chest and At World's End in 2007.
In 2011, we got On Stranger Tides, though Dead Men Tell No Tales ended things on something of a bum note in 2017.
Stay tuned to SFFGazette.com for updates.