The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise is reportedly set to make a comeback amongst fellow upcoming Disney movies at some point. So, of course, I’m curious what original cast members and characters could return for a sixth installment. Geoffrey Rush, a.k.a. Captain Hector Barbossa, just commented on potentially making an appesrance, and he's all for it. However, one aspect of this gives me pause.
Pirates producer Jerry Bruckheimer has been working on reviving Disney's swashbuckling franchise for years. Most recently, he said his efforts on Top Gun 3 were just “a hair ahead” of the movement on Pirates. As for Geoffrey Rush, when he was asked about donning a pirate hat once more to play the captain of the Black Pearl, he said:
I think there’s been a big enough break. I sacrificed myself for my daughter. I don’t want it to be too cheesy and too easy that I come back and go, ‘Give me another payday.’ I respect the scale of the opera that’s almost been created in that 20-year period.
Now, as you may recall, when we first meet Captain Barbossa in the very first Pirates movie, The Curse of the Black Pearl, he’s part of an undead crew. He dies at the end of that one but, then in Dead Man’s Chest, he is resurrected by Naomie Harris’ Tia Dalma. Rush then reprises his role in At World’s End, On Stranger Tides and the most recentPirates film, 2017's Dead Men Tell No Tales.
In that Pirates finale, Barbossa depicted as a very successful pirate who commands a fleet of 10 ships. During the movie, we find out that he’s the father to Kaya Scodelario’s Carina and he sacrifices himself to protect her. As Rush continued while speaking to Entertainment Weekly:
I go to Shakespeare and go to Hamlet’s father comes back as a ghost, and I thought that could be really. It’ll take good writing, but just to come back and annoy Jack Sparrow for one more go, you know? I’d even say get the fans to write in what they’d like to see happen.
I think my question is obvious. How would they bring Barbossa back from the dead a second time? They’d have to be careful about doing it gracefully, and I like that Rush said he wouldn’t want to come back just for the paycheck. Within the Pirates universe, there are various forms of magic and curses, but I definitely like the idea of Barbossa haunting Jack Sparrow as a ghost. Plus, there have been plenty of ghosts in the franchise already.
Rush isn’t the first OG Pirates actor to express a willingness to reprise their role. Orlando Bloom also shared his interest in coming back as Will Turner along with sharing he’s connected with Johnny Depp “every now and again”. While we don’t know if Depp would return as Captain Jack Sparrow, Bruckheimer said in March that if it was up to him, the actor would.
For now, though, Johnny Depp is set to make a big comeback to the big screen amid the 2026 movie schedule with Ebenezer. The movie even includes a reunion with Pirates star Sam Claflin. The A Christmas Carol adaptation hits theaters on November 13, and we’ll be awaiting more updates on another Pirates of the Caribbean movie as they come. In the meantime, stream all five of those madcap films using a Disney+ subscription.
