14 DAY TRIAL // Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley opted out of the fourth installment in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise, which came out in 2011, for reasons that could have had anything to do with money, time onscreen, or even the rapport they built with the others involved in the production.
The bottom line is that they left and Disney rebuilt the entire universe around its other leading star, Johnny Depp, and his colorful, unforgettable Captain Jack Sparrow.
Orlando, for one, would love to be able to come back. If he did reprise his Will Turner role, he would do it only for the pleasure of working with Depp again.
The fifth film is believed to arrive in theaters in the summer of 2017, quite at a distance from its predecessor, “On Stranger Tides,” which, as noted above, dropped in 2011. Shooting is scheduled to start soon, and Orlando says he’s been in talks to come back.
Working with Johnny Depp would be worth it
“There have certainly been some discussions about it and I’m open to it,” Bloom said at a panel at Oz Comic Con, as reported by the Daily Mail. “That whole experience working with Johnny [Depp] and [director] Gore [Verbinski] was really amazing for me.”
“I had a great time working with Johnny, one of the reasons I jumped at the opportunity [to be in the first Pirates] was because Johnny was involved. I was such a massive fan of Johnny Depp growing up so to get up close and personal to Johnny and see how he worked as an actor was just a massive gift,” Bloom continued.
This isn’t the first time that Bloom praises his former co-star and says he’d return to the “Pirates” franchise for his sake, so perhaps his words don’t really carry as much weight as they appear to do.
Don’t believe the hype, not even when it comes from Orlando Bloom
The fifth film in the series has been in production purgatory for years, so there is a very solid chance that it might never be made, even if its predecessor proved such a box office hit. To release a sequel after 6 years is quite a gamble, especially in a context in which most studios rush to put out installments in the same franchise within a year of each other.
Orlando Bloom could simply be very polite when he says he would love to work with Depp again because, mostly likely, this “Pirates” chapter is closed for good for him, after all these years.
The only beacon of hope for fans is that Bloom’s career isn’t exactly what it was back in his heartthrob “Pirates” days and he might consider coming back to the franchise for a much needed boost for his profile. In that case, yes, absolutely: believe him when he says he’s been in talks to reprise his role.