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Johnny Depp Injured on “Pirates of the Caribbean 5” Location, Returns to US for Surgery

Release schedule won’t be impacted, Disney assures fans

Mar 11, 2015 14:00 GMT  ·  By
Johnny Depp has been sidelined from “Pirates 5” production by arm injury
   Johnny Depp has been sidelined from “Pirates 5” production by arm injury

Johnny Depp didn’t get to go on a honeymoon with new wife Amber Heard after tying the knot because he had to fly to Australia to start shooting for the upcoming “Pirates of the Caribbean” film, the fifth, “Dead Men Tell No Tales.”

He is now back in the US after boarding a private jet in view of undergoing surgery on his arm. Variety confirms that he injured himself over the weekend and was told by doctors surgery was necessary.

Injury wasn’t sustained on set

Despite early reports claiming that Depp had been injured on the set of the film, while shooting a scene, the trade publication stresses that this is not accurate: no one knows where, when exactly or how Depp came to harm, but it wasn’t on set.

Disney too confirms this, adding that the release schedule won’t be impacted because Depp has to take time out for at least a couple of weeks. Expect “Dead Men Tell No Tales” to drop in theaters on July 7, 2017, as previously announced.

While Depp undergoes surgery and recovers in the US, shooting will continue in Australia, around his character, the famous and charismatic Captain Jack Sparrow.

Joining him on the big screen are Javier Bardem and Brenton Thwaites, Orlando Bloom and Geoffrey Rush. Bloom sat the fourth movie out, but according to his own statement, he begged Disney to take him back for the chance to work with Depp once more. Espen Sandberg and Joachim Rønning are directing.

Do we really need another “Pirates” movie?

When “Dead Men Tell No Tells” arrives in theaters, it will come 6 years after the previous installment, “On Stranger Tides,” the first film in the franchise to part with 2 of the three original castmembers, Keira Knightley and Bloom.

Though it made over $1 billion (€943.3 million) at the international box office, “On Stranger Tides” was trashed by critics and cruelly mocked online, being generally regarded as proof that Disney was willing to milk the franchise for the last cent, even if it no longer had the same value as before.

The same happened to Depp: never before was he as criticized as he was now for his apparent refusal to play any other character than the one he’d been doing for years, because, let’s face it, Sparrow is just another variation of the wacky misfit he favors.

Depp’s most recent releases, from “The Rum Diary” through to “Mortdecai,” but particularly “Transcendence,” “The Lone Ranger” and the aforementioned “Mortdecai,” were box office duds, a possible sign that his appeal at the box office is fading fast.

Let’s hope he won’t lose it altogether by the time “Dead Men Tell No Tales” comes out, because Disney is investing big in it.

Here is a photo of Depp boarding the plane for the US. He looks in good spirits.