Johnny Depp has taken to the high seas as Captain Jack Sparrow once more, and it's for the most heartwarming of causes. Depp tied on the bootstraps once more, reprising his most famous character, to film a video message for a young fan as part of the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Depp filmed the video for an 11-year-old fan named Kori, who runs the YouTube channel "Kraken The Box." Kori has been in palliative care after undergoing multiple heart transplant surgeries and watched the Pirates of the Caribbean movies as a source of comfort and support during long periods of recovery.
Depp is no stranger to donning the Captain Jack garb off-camera. He has famously made visits to an English school while on a break from shooting Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, after receiving a letter from a young fan asking for his assistance in performing a mutiny against the teachers, while he has routinely made trips to hospitals to lift the spirits of sick children, having started the tradition when his daughter Lily-Rose Depp fell ill during the shooting of an early Pirates film, and ending up donating $1 million to the Great Ormond Street Hospital.
"So, Capt. 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," says Captain Jack. "I hear tell of something they speak about in the ages of now called the YouTube channel, which I don't understand, but why not?... I think it 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. Curious, enduring and strange." Depp closed the video by adding "I wish you the best of luck, I am your number one fan, Captain Kori," and that he would be following the boy's YouTube channel along with all of his friends.
Depp was set to reprise his role as Captain Jack Sparrow in a sixth edition of the Pirates franchise, but it was revealed during his defamation lawsuit versus former spouse Amber Heard that he had been let go by Disney as a result of abuse allegations made by Heard. The jury reached a unanimous decision on June 1, finding Heard was guilty of defamation when claiming she was the victim of abuse at the hands of Depp. Heard was ordered to pay Depp $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages in his defamation suit.
Original Pirates producer Jerry Bruckheimer was today asked if Depp could return as Capt. Jack, to which he responded: "We're still working on it."
For now, you can see Depp reprising his role and making a child's day, down below.