Co-stars Leave Next 'Pirates 4'

We've known that Knightley and Bloom are out for a while.

As long as they follow these guidelines, POTC 4 may be the best one since Black Pearl:

1) Do whatever you can to keep Depp on board. I don't care if they have to give him France to keep him, this franchise relies on Depp. Without him, we're either going to not see Jack at all, which is beyond stupid, or we're going to get a replacement, which would suck beyond measures because no one can play Jack just like Depp, no way.

2) Bring Geoffrey Rush and the other pirates back. It seems like this is going to happen, so I'm happy. I love seeing Jack's fellow swashbucklers interacting with each other. They made even Pirates 3 watchable with their great chemistry. And you need to bring Rush back. He was pure awesomeness as Barbossa.

And 3) Try to bring it back to the style and tone of Black Pearl. The last 2 Pirates movies have gotten unnecessarily convoluted and "out-there" shall we say. POTC 4 needs to go back to the simple pirate adventure story, filled with action and humor, but with a slight supernatural twist to it to set it apart from the rest of the genre. DMC and ATW just got ridiculously weird and complex, especially ATW, it lost some of what made the first so great.

If they do all that, I'll be happy, provided a good script and competent director of course.

They should've left after the first one. What a stupid storyline they had.

@Tyler- Well said! Rush is an amazing actor and he did an amazing job as Barbossa

Tyler, I 100% agree with you on points 1 and 2. I am one of the few who enjoyed how each movie became gradually more convoluted. I would envision that to be the life of an adventuring pirate, and I think the nature of the plot reflected that, and I think it was intentional. I must confess however, to a child like wonder to those movies myself lol.

Without Depp this franchise is hopeless, and without Rush it would be certainly less entertaining.

The first Pirates was the best, 2 was really good, but I got bored during 3, I agree w/ Tyler that it should be a simple adventure with swashbuckling and humor plus Depp/Rush are a must

3 was all over the shop but I still kind of enjoyed it. In all 3 the lowest common denominator was Orlando "I'm as wooden as a the plank I'm walking" Bloom. I'm so glad that Hollywood seems to have realized that the man is pants and doesn't cast him in anything anymore:)

This is old news. It was reported way back when. They didn't want to return. And no one involved had a part for them in it.

orlando bloom will never play a role that fits him better than legolas did... a stoic elf, with no emotion, mostly good for looking pretty.

last i read up on it
it was only gonna be sparrow and barbosa
to continue in the series
the swan and turner saga
was only for the trilogy
that's why their story ended
to bring them back would be odd as hell
barbosa wast the best pirate ever
so if rush doesn't return i'm done with the franchise
i wanna know who's playing blackbeard!!!
i vote adam baldwin

[frick] POTC. Make Serenity 2. Stop being a baby and make another serenity movie, joss whedon, you asshole.

knightley and bloom were the worst parts of these movies...well...aside from the 2nd and 3rd movies being complete garbage. but as far as the actors go, they were the worst.

This is far from news.

Wasnt this reported months ago! Im glad they arent coming back, their characters were great in the first one but they seemed to get crap in the sequels and their story was done at the end of the third one anyway. InTylerWeTrust82's points is all the new movie needs to be good

I THOUGHT THAT SPARROW WOULD JOURNEY WITH KNIGHTLY TO FIND THE FOUNTAIN, THAT WAY SHE COULD SPEN ETERNITY WITH BLOOMS CHARACTER WHO IS TRAPPED DOING THE DUTCHMAN THING FOREVER..OH WELL..BUT IF THEY DID HAVE TO BE IN IT, MAYBE A CAMEO? OR IF THE CHARACTERS WERE IN IT I COULD SEE A KNIGHTLY REPLACEMENT THAT COULD WORK..

The first one was great, and although parts 2 & 3 were not as good, I still enjoyed them.
But as comments above mentioned, the Bloom/Knightley story is over, so it's not loss. To include them in a fourth movie would be difficult to do story-wise.
It would be a shame NOT to have Rush, though. His Barbossa from the first movie is one of the best screen villains, and certainly the BEST pirate I've seen.
But it's worrying that Verbinski isn't directing. Without him, it could turn into a new Cutthroat Island...

I agree with @Osirus.
Keep it simple with the swashbuckling. Removing the love story stuff could knock this one out of the park !