Johnny Depp's Hand Injury Prolongs Delays on Walt Disney Pictures' Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

Find out if the movie's July 7, 2017 release date will be affected

By Zach Johnson Mar 31, 2015 1:15 PMTags
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It'll be a bit longer before Captain Jack Sparrow sails the high seas.

Production on Walt Disney Pictures' Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales is expected resume around Apr. 15 on Australia's Gold Coast, according to Australian media reports. Filming shut down for several weeks after Johnny Depp flew to the U.S. March 11 in order to receive hand surgery.

Cameras continued to roll during scenes in which Depp's character does not appear.

The delay was originally expected to last two weeks, as producers believed that the 51-year-old actor's hand injury would have a "minimal impact" on the shoot. However, that break has now extended to at least four weeks after Depp needed a pin inserted in a finger. Around 200 crewmembers were informed that they will not work for the next two weeks, according to multiple Australian media reports.

All crewmembers will return to set when filming re-starts.

Mal Tulloch, director of entertainment crew and sport for the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, told The Sydney Morning Herald his crewmembers are not concerned "at this stage" that production will halt entirely. "They've tried to keep it going in his absence—it's not like a Fast and Furious situation, where the star [Paul Walker] has died—but they've reached the pinch point," he said.

Per the newspaper, crewmembers who "are in rented accommodation provided by the production have been told they can continue to use it in the interim, and they will be able to use accrued leave and entitlements to cover some of the income shortfall ahead of a scheduled resumption of production."

This is the second time production has been disrupted on the fifth installment in the franchise. Tropical cyclone Nathan temporarily shut down second unit photography shortly after filming began in February.

Geoffrey Rush, Kevin R. McNally and Stephen Graham are reprising their roles as Barbossa, Joshamee Gibbs and Scrum, respectively. Javier Bardem, Golshifteh Farahani, Kaya Scodelario and Brenton Thwaites round out the cast.

Another 14 weeks of shooting remain on the film.

The release date is still set for July 7, 2017.