According to the Oscar-nominated actress, Disney has canceled the Margot Robbie-led Pirates of the Caribbean spinoff. While Disney could not be reached for comment, Robbie voiced her remarks in a Vanity Fair interview released on Monday.
“We had a concept and we were developing it for a long time, years ago, to have more of a female-led—not entirely female-led, but a different sort of story—which we thought would’ve been very amazing,” Robbie explained, “but I suppose they don’t want to do it.”
The movie based on Disney’s theme park attraction series was initially revealed in June 2020, with Batgirl’s Christina Hodson writing the screenplay. It would have followed titles such as The Curse of the Black Pearl, Dead Man’s Chest, At World’s End, On Stranger Tides, and Dead Men Tell No Tales, which made more than $4.5 billion worldwide between 2003 and 2017, making it one of the highest-grossing film series in history.
Johnny Depp starred in all previous sequels as the drunken pirate Captain Jack Sparrow, but Disney fired him after he made charges of “sexual assault” and “domestic abuse” against his ex-wife Amber Heard in a Washington Post op-ed in 2018. While Depp successfully sued the Aquaman actress for slander in Virginia earlier this year, he stated during the trial that “nothing on earth” could persuade him to return to the brand he once adored, given his history with the company.
Robbie’s comments about the cancellation of her Pirates project came during her press tour for the old Hollywood epic Babylon, in which she co-stars with Brad Pitt, Diego Calva, and others. The following picture written and directed by Oscar winner Damien Chazelle (La La Land, First Man) is set to be released on December 23 by Paramount Pictures. Even without Disney’s spinoff, Robbie’s dance card is still full. On the acting front, she has Warner Bros.’ Barbie, Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City, and an unnamed Ocean’s Eleven picture for Warner Bros., which she will also produce.