Johnny Depp is REFUSING to ever return to Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean trends now

Johnny Depp fans who are clamoring for him to once step into Captain Jack Sparrow's tattered boots and tricorn are set to face bitter disappointment because, DailyMail.com can reveal, the actor has absolutely no plans to ever work with Disney again. 

Despite furious speculation about the actor's potential return to the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise - which reports suggested could earn him up to $20 million - Depp is, his pals say, done with Disney once and for all because he is still furious over the way the studio unceremoniously 'dropped him' when his ex-wife Amber Heard accused him of abuse. 

Last week, Disney studios President Sean Bailey made global headlines when he said that the studio was 'noncommittal at this point' about Depp's return. It was widely taken as a gambit to leave the door open for Depp, following his win in court in Virginia last year over domestic abuse allegations. 

But, having spent the past few months weighing what he does and doesn't want to do and, on the eve of his 60th birthday on Friday, sources close to the star say that appearing in a film for Disney does not interest him. 

Insiders say that Depp is still smarting after the way that they dumped him when the wife-beating accusations first surfaced. 

'They blind dropped him even though Amber had lied her a** off,' says a friend.

Although he said in Cannes that he doesn't feel boycotted by Hollywood, Depp, a sensitive man, is angry about the way that the domestic abuse allegations played out and has decided that focusing on a life away from the industry is the best thing for him.   

The pal says he has decided that no matter how lucrative the offer, or how cameo the role, he will never agree to go back for this particular studio film - and that it is highly unlikely that he will be tempted to do any studio film again.

Because it was not just Disney that dumped Depp at the first sign of trouble.  

For example, Tim Burton – a long time friend of the actor – is making a second Beetlejuice film for Warner Bros, but Depp will not reprise his role in the sequel, even though he is godfather to Tim's children. 

This, friends revealed, is due - at least in part - to his reluctance to get involved with Warner Bros again after the studio cut him out of the Fantastic Beasts franchise when he lost his libel action in London.

After five years largely consumed with legal battles against former wife Amber Heard, Depp is picking up the threads of his career and is concentrating on music, art, and directing arthouse films.

His blockbuster era seems to be a thing of the past.

He was quiet and contemplative in Cannes last month during the festival. 

He said: 'I started to experience these circuses - we can call them carnivals - so long ago. Your life becomes a circus,' he said. 'It's not that you get used to the circus, but you realize there's nothing you can do but inhale, exhale and accept what happens in the next steps. It's still weird to me.'

A source close to the actor says: 'He says he isn't interested in speaking someone else's words. He is interested in authentic expression of himself, through art and music at the moment. He's got no interest in Hollywood at all.'

Might he make another passion project like the 2020 film Minamata, about mercury poisoning in Japan? 

'He might,' says the source. 'I would say that its likely he will spend most of his time in France, painting and making music. There could be the odd film.'

This year his focus has been on supporting Beck's widow Sandra, who is 58. He flew to Beck's bedside and was with Sandra at the funeral. He was also present afterwards when Beck was interred in a green ceremony in the back garden of their house in Sussex.

The actor spent extended periods living with Beck and Sandra, particularly during the pandemic.

Since then he has taken Sandra on holiday to his island in the Bahamas, Little Parrot Cay. Her best friend Wendy, British singer Joss Stone's mother, came along too.

Last month he popped up at the Hotel Bristol for a special screening of the film Donny Brasco with his co-star and friend Al Pacino. Then came Cannes.