Johnny Depp Would Be in Next Pirates Movie 'If It Was Up to Me,' Says Producer Jerry Bruckheimer

Jerry Bruckheimer is sharing more about the planned Pirates of the Caribbean reboot — but he still wishes Johnny Depp could return to the franchise.

"It's a reboot, but if it was up to me, he would be in it," Bruckheimer, 80, told Entertainment Weekly recently, while speaking to the status of two separate Pirates movies currently in development.

"I love him. He's a good friend. He's an amazing artist and he's a unique look," the longtime film producer added of Depp, 60, who led the franchise as Captain Jack Sparrow for its first five movies, released between 2003 and 2017. "He created Captain Jack. That was not on the page, that was him doing a little Pepé Le Pew and Keith Richards. That was his interpretation of Jack Sparrow."

Depp costarred with Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley for Pirates' first three movies, each based on the Disneyland theme park attraction of the same name. Depp earned an Oscar nomination for playing Jack Sparrow in the original 2003 film The Curse of the Black Pearl.

The franchise's future has appeared up in the air since the release of 2017's Dead Men Tell No Tales. A representative for Depp told PEOPLE in June 2022, that a report claiming Depp would return to the franchise was "false," but in July 2023, a source close to the actor said he could potentially return to the series.

Depp is still navigating a return to acting that began with his 2023 release Jeanne du Barry, which was released in select U.S. theaters earlier in May. As of now, the actor does not have any upcoming projects listed on his IMDb page.

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Disney still appears to be considering taking the Pirates franchise in multiple directions. Bruckheimer first shared with PEOPLE in March that the studio intends to reboot the 18th-century set franchise entirely, and he told EW recently that the studio would also like to move forward with a separate entry starring Margot Robbie that has been in the works since at least 2020.

"It's two different movies," Bruckheimer said of the two films in development. "We hope to get 'em both made, and I think Disney agrees they really want to make the Margot one, too."

Robbie previously said in a November 2022 interview with Vanity Fair that her Pirates spinoff project was no longer in development, but Bruckheimer told TheWrap just weeks later that Robbie's script was one of two films in development.

Bruckheimer told EW that screenwriter Jeff Nathanson (Young Woman and the Sea) is writing the script for the Pirates reboot, for which no casting has yet been announced. 

"I think he's cracked it," Bruckheimer remarks. "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."