After reports swirled of Johnny Depp returning as Jack Sparrow, the actor’s team has thrown cold water on any hopes for his appearance in the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie.
Although Disney’s high-profile firing of Depp from the Pirates franchise sounded conclusive when it came up in the trial following his lawsuit against Amber Heard, that trial also made it clear that so many of Depp’s fans will never picture anyone else helming the blockbuster series.
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For that reason, it seems that his legal victory renewed both their hopes and possibly even hopes from within Disney itself that Depp would reprise his iconic role.
However, it seems that any rumors suggesting such a casting change could be on the horizon have amounted to wishful thinking.
On June 27, reports began to surface of Disney offering Johnny Depp $301 million to return to the Pirates Of The Caribbean franchise.
According to E Online, this rumor came from an Australian site called PopTopic and suggested that the entertainment giant had further plans for its prodigal star.
As a supposed source told the website, “Disney is very interested in patching up their relationship with Johnny Depp. They are very hopeful that Johnny will forgive them and return as his iconic character.”
In addition to the hefty salary for his triumphant return, this rumor also suggested that a new Sparrow-centric Disney+ series was in the works.
As Forbes reported, this series would have explored the early years of Sparrow’s pirate career despite the fact that Depp would have been playing this younger version of his character at 59 years old.
But even before there was an official word from Depp’s team about the veracity of this rumor, that wasn’t the only detail that seemed fishy to skeptics.
For a couple of reasons, that supposed $301 million offer attracted its share of suspicions.
After all, Forbes noted that Depp was paid $22.5 million during his last turn as Sparrow and even at the peak of the series’ popularity before At World’s End was released, Depp walked away with a $50 million.
And it wasn’t just the fact that paying Depp $301 million would mean eclipsing the biggest salary he had ever received that aroused suspicions.
In addition to that figure totalling the entire budget of At World’s End , it sounded like a direct reference to a question that came up during the trial.
As Amber Heard lawyer Ben Rottenborn asked Depp, “The fact is, Mr. Depp, if Disney came to you with $300 million and a million alpacas, nothing on this earth would get you to go back and work with Disney on a Pirates of the Caribbean film?”
Nonetheless, it became widespread enough that Depp’s team have given the rumor an official response.
And just in case any of his fans were still getting their hopes up, they had to learn the hard way that some things can’t just be wished into existence.
As a representative for Depp said, “This is made up.”
So even if Disney was somehow willing to offer him $301 million (which they haven’t), Depp has made it clear that he’s not coming back to the franchise.
