5 Ladies Up For "Pirates Of The Caribbean 5"

Variety says that Lucy Boynton ("Miss Potter"), Kaya Scodelario ("The Maze Runner"), Gabriella Wilde ("Endless Love"), Alexandra Dowling ("The Musketeers") and Jenna Thiam ("The Returned") are on the shortlist to potentially appear in the upcoming sequel "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales". There are additional names testing as well, but they haven't been revealed.

The part is essentially the love interest for the secondary male lead--a British soldier named Henry ("The Giver," "Maleficent" star Brenton Thwaites) in the film. The studio will perform chemistry tests next week between Thwaites and the ladies to see who best fits the role--other details about the part remain unknown.

 Thwaites beat out Ansel Elgort, Taron Egerton, George Mackay ("Pride"), and Sam Keeley ("This Must Be the Place") for his part.

"Kon-Tiki" directors Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg are due to call action and are reportedly working on the latest draft of the script after Jeff Nathanson (Men in Black 3) did a rewrite of his initial script.

Ronning and Espen Sandberg said that the new film will be a combination of a stand-alone story, and adding to the "overall mythology of the series" (Read not as stand-alone as "Stranger Tides " but not as mythology heavy as the first two sequels--Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End).

Franchise star Johnny Depp's nefarious do gooder Jack Sparrow will get a new female lead to play off of, a woman who will be accused of witchcraft though is actually a scientist. Rebecca Hall is said to be circling to play Carina.

 Javier Bardem ("Skyfall," "No Country for Old Men") is in early talks to play the villain in the film-- a ghost captain who blames Jack Sparrow for the death of his brother and is searching for a supernatural object to aid him. Christoph Waltz ("Inglourious Basterds," "Django Unchained") took some interest in playing the role at one time. Bardem's wife, Penelope Cruz, played the female lead in"Tides".

Orlando Bloom seemingly retired from the Pirates of the Caribbean film series after the third film. He and Keira Knightley's characters were replaced by Sam Claflin and Astrid Bergès-Frisbey in "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" but the dynamic did not work as well. Now Bloom's character of Will Turner may return for Pirates 5

Jerry Bruckheimer returns to produce the sequel.

The myth of the Bermuda Triangle will factor in somehow.

Production begins next year in Australia for a July 7th, 2017 debut.