Orlando Bloom Feels Pirates Of The Caribbean 6 Needs This One Thing To Succeed

Walt Disney Pictures and producer Jerry Bruckheimer have been trying to make a new "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie happen for a while, but the project still hasn't left port. At least one of the original stars is willing to come back... and he hopes others will follow.

At Fan Expo Chicago 2025, Orlando Bloom, who played blacksmith turned pirate Will Turner in four of the five previous films, discussed the possibility of "Pirates 6" and him appearing in it (as reported by Entertainment Weekly), saying: 

"I would personally love to see everybody back. I think the way to win on that one is to get everybody back. If they can, and if everybody wanted to go back... My thing is, if the script was great and — ideally it was everybody — it'd be kind of like in for a penny, in for a pound, you know."

When Bloom says "everybody," presumably he means Keira Knightley (who played Will's love Elizabeth Swan), Johnny Depp (the flamboyant Captain Jack Sparrow), and Geoffrey Rush (charming scoundrel Captain Hector Barbossa). Of this central cast, only Depp and Rush have appeared in all five "Pirates" films thus far. Bloom and Knightley sat out the fourth film, "On Stranger Tides," but returned for small roles in the fifth, "Dead Men Tell No Tales." Barbossa did die in "Dead Men Tell No Tales," but he's returned from the great beyond before.

Bloom, however, mentioned he has no clue what the story for a "Pirates 6" would entail. "Do you bring in a female leading character that replicates Jack in some way? I don't know," he said, presumably referring to a proposed "Pirates" film that would star Margot Robbie. Robbie's "Pirates" was announced in 2020, but then in 2022 the actress said the movie wasn't moving forward. Bruckheimer, though, told EW in 2024 that he still intended to make both a "reboot" and the Robbie-led spin-off.

"Dead Men Tell No Tales" had a post-credits scene hinting that Davy Jones (Bill Nighy), the squid-faced former captain of ghostly ship the Flying Dutchman, had returned. Would "Pirates 6" follow up on that?

When Bloom says he wants "everybody" back, though, I hope he's also including someone from behind the camera: Gore Verbinski, the director of the original (and by far the best) three "Pirates" movies.

Verbinski's greatest talent as a filmmaker is constructing set pieces. The action in his "Pirates" movies is manic, not lacking for comedy but still totally thrilling. Look at the three-way waterwheel duel in the second film, "Dead Man's Chest," and you can see how the non-Verbinski "Pirates" movies are pale imitations.

Granted, Verbinski let his imagination go a little too loose on the sequels, hence the sprawling and complicated narrative of "At World's End." Worldbuilding got in the way of the adventure, a problem which modern blockbusters have yet to overcome. For many years people wrote off the original "Curse of the Black Pearl" as lightning in a bottle, but time has been kind to "Pirates" 2 & 3. They're not flawless movies, but the merits sing louder than the problems.

Besides putting Verbinski back at the helm, is Bloom's call to get the band back together the right move? Depp is no longer the star he was in 2003. He had a string of flops in the 2010s, mostly because he tried to recapture the Jack Sparrow magic in other roles. Public opinion on Depp also remains decidedly split following his messy, mutual defamation trial with his ex-wife Amber Heard (who had accused him of abuse in 2016). Bruckheimer claimed back in 2017 that "Pirates 6" wouldn't move forward without Depp, and he reiterated this year that he's spoken with Depp about appearing in the movie.

The other problem that "Pirates of the Caribbean" never got over is that "At World's End" concluded things too definitely for the original cast. Will was bound to captain the Flying Dutchman, but if Elizabeth stayed faithful to him for 10 years, they could be together again. The movie ended by showing that she did so. Meanwhile, Jack Sparrow was Han Solo, i.e. best as a lovable rogue to bounce off of different lead characters, and making him into the lead in later movies didn't work. "Dead Men Tell No Tales" tried to be a "Force Awakens" style legacy sequel, pairing Jack up with Will and Elizabeth's son Henry (Brenton Thwaites) and Barbossa's daughter Carina (Kaya Scodelario). That torch flamed out while being passed.

As cool a villain as Davy Jones was, his arc concluded perfectly in "At World's End." Stabbed in the heart by Will, Jones fell into the ocean and was forever reunited with his true love, the sea god Calypso (Naomie Harris).

Disney evidently has no intention of letting sleeping pirates lie, but perhaps their best bet is a fresh start, not a reunion.