Johnny Depp has briefly stepped back into Captain Jack Sparrow's boots.
The 59-year-old reprised the iconic Pirates of the Caribbean role in a video message addressed to an 11-year-old superfan named Kori. In a posting shared on Dec. 11, Kori—who has received two heart transplants and is currently in palliative care—wrote that Depp made the video in collaboration with the Make-A-Wish Foundation after hearing about his recently launched pirate-themed YouTube channel, Kraken the Box.
"Captain Kori, terribly sorry I missed out on this. Meant to say it, forgot to say it, didn't say it, gonna say it now. Saying it, I'll say it," Depp, dressed as Jack Sparrow, began in the two-minute clip. "I hear tales of something they speak about in the ages of now called the YouTube channel, which I don't understand, but why not?"
Calling the youngster "quite the YouTube channel man," Depp promises to tune into Kori's videos and "tell all my friends to follow" the channel.
"That, I think, will make for a wonderful entertainment expertise momentary lapse of togetherness altogether in one space but far apart—but then, at the same time, very close," Depp continued, still in his eccentric character. "Curious, enduring and strange."
Wishing Kori "the best of luck" with his new endeavor, the actor added, "I am your No. 1 fan, Captain Kori."
Since uploading Depp's video message, Kori has amassed thousands of new followers. As of this story's publishing time, he has more than 179,000 subscribers on his channel, which launched in November.
A source close to Depp tells E! News the actor made the video after Make-A-Wish contacted him with a "timely ask" about surprising Kori, who watched the Pirates movies while recovering from heart surgeries.
In a follow-up video posted on Dec. 13, Kori shared footage from a FaceTime call he had with Depp, who was still in his Jack Sparrow character.
"Hello Kori, how are you?" Depp asked, prompting the young boy to gush that he's doing "really, really good."
Depp went on to compliment Kori on the "wonderful chapeau" he was wearing during the call, which happened to be a brown tri-fold hat similar to the one adorned by Jack Sparrow, before suggesting to "knight" the tween as a pirate.
As Depp explained, "I thought it only right."
Depp played Jack Sparrow in all five Pirates of the Caribbean movies, the latest one being the 2017 installment Dead Men Tell No Tales. During his defamation trial against ex Amber Heard earlier this year, the star said that he had no interest in returning for more Pirates movies.
However, Pirates producer Jerry Bruckheimer recently hinted that the door may still be open for Jack Sparrow's return. "We're still working on it," he told Associated Press. "Nothing is definitive yet, but we continue to take little baby steps in getting towards a screenplay."