Talking to SciFi Wire Nighy says, “I understand that there was an announcement that there was going to be a fourth, and now I've been told since that that was not a reliable announcement.” The announcement said, rather simply, that Pirates of the Caribbean 4 was about to set sale. Now it sounds like it’s stuck in port. Nighy doesn’t think that producer Jerry Bruckheimer is in any rush to get the fourth movie made. He says, “Jerry at one point said we have to wait until the world is pirate-hungry again.”
It’s pretty clear though that the world is Pirates hungry. Even the tiniest tidbit of news on the future of the franchise is met with an avalanche of interest from fans and casual moviegoers alike. It’s a sure moneymaker and all indications are that Disney is eager to make more swashbuckling money. Odds are that the holdup here is Johnny Depp who, according to rumor, only agreed to do the movie as a favor to Disney exec Dick Cook. Disney fired Cook after making the aforementioned Pirates 4 announcement and now maybe Johnny’s not so interested.