Pirates of the Caribbean 5 Gets a Release Date!

Avast! Jack Sparrow will set sail in just a few years!

Walt Disney Pictures announced Wednesday that the highly anticipated fifth Pirates of the Caribbean movie will be released on July 7, 2017. The film was originally slated for a summer 2016 release, but production was delayed over script issues. Johnny Depp is expected to reprise his role as the captain.

Jeff Nathanson has been hired to write the screenplay. "Like audiences around the globe, we have high expectations for Jack Sparrow's next adventure and we want to have all the right elements in place," Disney production president Sean Bailey explained in the fall of 2013. "We're not there yet and we want to make sure this project is everything these wonderful characters and of course the fans deserve."

Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg are directing the movie, and Jerry Bruckheimer is producing it.

Plot details regarding the fifth Pirates of the Caribbean are being kept under wraps until further notice.

The first four Pirates movies have grossed $3.7 billion; the fourth installment, On Stranger Tides, crossed the $1 billion mark. The fifth film will face stiff competition from Fantastic Four 2 and Despicable Me 3.

Depp is a Disney favorite, having starred in 2010's Alice in Wonderland and 2013's The Lone Ranger. He next appears in 2014's Into the Woods, featuring Emily Blunt, Chris Pine, Meryl Streep and more stars.