Margot Robbie to Lead 'Pirates of The Caribbean-6' without Johnny Depp

A new Pirates of the Caribbean is in the works with Margot Robbie, but Johnny Depp may not return.

Depp first debuted as the hardy, rum-guzzling Captain Jack Sparrow in 2003's swashbuckling Curse of the Black Pearl, earning himself a whole new legion of fans and an Oscar nomination.

He's reprised the role in four further sequels - Dead Man's Chest, At World's End, On Stranger Tides and Dead Men Tell No Tales - but his participation in a planned sixth film has been up in the air in recent years.

It's not entirely surprising if Disney is looking to rejig the Pirates franchise; while the fifth film was a relative commercial success, grossing nearly $800 million (£654m) worldwide, it has a meagre 30 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.

Two projects have been in development for quite some time now: one from longtime series scribe Ted Elliott and Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin; and the other is an entirely new story starring Margot Robbie, with a script by Birds of Prey’s Christina Hodson.

In a new interview with The Times ahead of the release of Top Gun: Maverick, legendary Hollywood producer Jerry Bruckheimer confirmed two Pirates scripts were still in the works, including the one with Robbie - if all things go to plan.

Speaking about the future of the franchise and it having a female lead, he said: "Yes. We’re talking to Margot Robbie. We are developing two Pirates scripts - one with her, one without."

There's a question most fans will be asking: will we ever see Depp return as Jack Sparrow? Bruckheimer said: "Not at this point. The future is yet to be decided."

This echoes his past comments regarding Depp's future as the beloved pirate, earlier telling Collider in 2020: "We’re working on a draft right now and hopefully we’ll get it shortly and give it to Disney and hopefully they’ll like it.

"We don’t know. We’ve been working on it for a little bit.”

When asked about Depp's participation, he said: "The one we’re developing right now, we’re not sure quite what Johnny’s role is going to be. So, we’re going to have to see.”

Depp is still embroiled in his defamation trial against Amber Heard in Virginia, set to conclude over the coming weeks. It comes after his libel loss to The Sun, after which he departed from the Fantastic Beasts franchise.