Next 'Pirates of the Caribbean' to keep fans waiting until summer 2017

Initially announced for 2015 and then pushed to summer 2016, the release of the fifth movie in the franchise is now scheduled for July 7, 2017.

"Dead Men Tell No Tales," the latest "Pirates of the Caribbean" production, has been fraught with difficulty for some time now. The budget and the script both led to problems, as producer Jerry Bruckheimer explained to the Hollywood Reporter in September 2013: "We're supposed to start [shooting] in March and you start spending a lot of money now... We have an outline everyone loves but the script is not done."

As a result, a total of six years will have passed between the release of the fourth episode, "The Fountain of Youth," and the fifth, which will once again focus on Jack Sparrow, still played by Johnny Depp. The pirate and his crew are expected to set out on a quest for the Trident, on which Captain Teague has vital information.

Production on "Dead Men Tell No Tales," which was initially slated to begin this winter, will likely also be delayed. The feature will be directed by Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg.

Introduced in 2003, the "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise will be 14 years old in 2017. Johnny Depp will be 54.