Rumors indicated Jenna Ortega was set to star in Pirates of the Caribbean 6 for Disney, leaving many fans diving into speculation on whether the movie is real or fake.
Speculation on Jenna Ortega's Pirates of the Caribbean 6
A new trailer posted on the KH Studio YouTube channel incited speculation that Jenna Ortega and Johnny Depp are starring in Pirates of the Caribbean 6, with the movie being set up for potential release soon.
The trailer teased Ortega as the daughter of Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow as they team up for a new adventure and treasure hunt together.
Also included in the trailer are Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Swann and Orlando Bloom as Will Turner, and the footage even teases another meeting with Bill Nighy's Davy Jones.
This is far from the first time Pirates of the Caribbean 6 has been the subject of speculation, as a poster made the rounds on social media in December 2023 teasing a new movie featuring Depp's Captain Jack.
Unfortunately, this trailer is fake, as it includes pieces of footage from most of the other five movies in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.
Particularly noticeable is the fact that Ortega's face is deepfaked over Penelope Cruz's body to imply Ortega is playing the daughter of Cruz's Angelica. One example is seen in the picture below, which is taken from one of the final scenes of 2011's Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and adds new dialogue:
Currently, Disney is in development on a real version of Pirates of the Caribbean 6, as producer Jerry Bruckheimer told Entertainment Tonight at the 2023 Academy Awards that he feels it will "have a great screenplay:"
"We’re all working on it, we’ll see how it comes out. We’re very excited, I think we’re gonna have a great screenplay, and I think we’re getting close."
This comes on top of other rumors teasing a new take on Pirates of the Caribbean starring Harley Quinn and Barbie actress Margot Robbie.
However, Robbie told fans in a Vanity Fair interview (via Variety) in November 2022, that this movie was dead and that she was unclear if Disney wanted to move forward with it:
"We had an idea and we were developing it for a while, ages ago, to have more of a female-led — not totally female-led, but just a different kind of story — which we thought would’ve been really cool. But I guess they don’t want to do it."
Variety previously reported in October 2019 that The Last of Us creator/writer Craig Mazin was working on a Pirates reboot, although no major updates have come to light since that time.
Mazin shared with the Los Angeles Times in August 2023 that Disney bought the script for the new movie, but he intends to work with original franchise writer Ted Elliott, who is credited as the writer on the first three Pirates outings:
"We pitched it and thought there’s no way they’re buying it, it’s too weird. And they did! And then he wrote a fantastic script and the strike happened and everyone’s waiting around."
Will Pirates of the Caribbean 6 Happen with Jenna Ortega?
For now, it appears that Pirates of the Caribbean 6 is a long shot for Disney, especially since Johnny Depp will not return to the franchise without an apology for the way he was treated during his public defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard.
On top of that, even after Ortega left Scream 7 (per Deadline) due to her filming schedule for Wednesday Season 2, the young star still has plenty of work ahead of her.
Most immediate is her upcoming performance in 2024's Beetlejuice 2, in which she will team up with original franchise actors Winona Ryder and Michael Keaton for the legacy follow-up film.
This comes after her latest film Miller's Girl (released on January 11) marked her most critically panned effort ever as the film only boasts a 35% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes, leaving her hopeful to recover with her slate of new projects.
All five Pirates of the Caribbean movies are now streaming on Disney+.
