The road to a Pirates of the Caribbean follow-up has been a long and bumpy one. Even before Johnny Depp’s public image troubles with the messy divorce involving him and ex-wife Amber Heard, Disney couldn’t lock down a solid way to continue the franchise with or without the face of the series — Captain Jack Sparrow. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer has thrown around a number of concepts, one of them involving Margot Robbie (which received conflicting reports on whether or not Disney passed on it) and one of them involving a new cast of younger actors. Bruckheimer confirmed recently that it will be a full-on reboot.

The elephant in the room will always be if Johnny Depp will make an appearance in some form for the new movies. Jerry Bruckheimer was recently interviewed on the red carpet of his new Disney movie with Daisy Ridley, Young Woman and the Sea, where he was asked about the Pirates franchise by Entertainment Tonight. Depp was recently seen reading a book with a pirate symbol, which prompted an inquiry of his involvement with an upcoming reboot. Bruckheimer replied,

If it was up to me, of course, I’d love to have him back in the movie. He’s fabulous. A great actor and a good friend.”

It was then asked if Bruckheimer and Depp have had coversations of getting the band back together and Bruckheimer responded simply,

I’ve certainly spoken to him. But we’ll see what happens.”

Many fans wonder why he decided to reboot the franchise in the first place instead of making it a sequel to the already-established world. According to Bruckheimer, much of it comes down to scheduling, with him noting how hard it is to do sequels to huge hits with big stars, as you have to wait on a performer’s availability. “You don’t know how they come together. You just don’t know. Because with Top Gun you have an actor who is iconic and brilliant. And how many movies he does before he does Top Gun, I can’t tell you. But we’re gonna reboot Pirates, so that is easier to put together because you don’t have to wait for certain actors.”

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