Margot Robbie’s female-led Pirates of the Caribbean spinoff might still be afloat according to franchise producer Jerry Bruckheimer.
Last month, Robbie told Vanity Fair that the film was dead at Disney; now, Bruckheimer is walking back the star’s comments. In an interview with Collider, Bruckheimer said that the fate of the female-led film is certainly not a foregone conclusion.
“I think that that script will come forward at a certain point,” Bruckheimer said. “We developed two different stories for ‘Pirates’ and the other one’s going forward first, so that’s what we’re working on, to try to get that one made.”
Bruckheimer explained that a different upcoming Pirates project was written simultaneously to the female-led film, but they ultimately decided to put Robbie’s film on the back burner as they continue production on the other film.
Not much is known about the upcoming sixth movie, but Ted Elliott and Craig Mazin are attached to write the script together. Elliott previously wrote the scripts for the first four Pirates movies, and Mazin is renowned for his work as the creator of the Chernobyl miniseries.
Robbie’s female-led Pirates movie was first announced in the summer of 2020 alongside Elliott and Mazin’s reboot. In June 2020, it was confirmed that Robbie would star in the film written by Birds of Prey screenwriter Christina Hodson.
Back in May, Bruckheimer confirmed to the Sunday Times that both Pirates projects were still in development at the time. “Yes. We’re talking to Margot Robbie. We are developing two ‘Pirates’ scripts — one with her, one without,” he explained. “[Will Johnny Depp be back?] Not at this point. The future is yet to be decided.”
When speaking to Vanity Fair last month, Robbie said: “We had an idea and we were developing it for a while, ages ago, to have more of a female-led — not totally female-led, but just a different kind of story — which we thought would’ve been really cool. But I guess they don’t want to do it.”
So, it’s still entirely possible that Robbie’s movie will hit screens at some point. When that will be and if it will ever come to fruition is only a question time can answer.
Carson Burton is a freelance news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter at @carsonsburton.
