After sailing the high seas with Captain Jack Sparrow, two Pirates of the Caribbean alums will reunite for Bunker. Oscar-winning actors Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz, who happen to be married to one another, are set to lead the new psychological thriller from writer-director Florian Zeller.

Per Deadline, Bardem will play an architect who accepts a morally ambiguous project — building a survivalist bunker for a tech billionaire — leading to his wife (Cruz) beginning to question their marriage after 17 years together. Bunker is described as "a thriller that delves into the emotional and moral challenges a couple faces amid the tensions of the world around them, exploring the fears, doubts, and dilemmas that define our era."

Bardem and Cruz have been married since 2010 and have appeared in close to a dozen movies together, with the last being the 2018 crime drama Everybody Knows. Both actors also played antagonists in Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, albeit in separate films. Cruz portrayed Blackbeard's daughter Angelica in 2011's On Stranger Tides, while Bardem played Captain Armando Salazar, the undead captain of the ghost ship Silent Mary in 2017's Dead Men Tell No Tales

Bunker Was Written Specifically for Bardem and Cruz

A unique aspect of Bunker is that Zeller wrote the English-language project specifically for Cruz and Bardem, with the writer-director explaining, "I wanted to tell the story of a marriage and was deeply compelled to work with a real-life couple. I immediately was drawn to the idea of working with Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz, two of the most gifted actors working today, who also happen to be one of the most iconic couples. I wrote Bunker for them. This film will push the boundaries of narrative and emotional truth, blurring the lines between reality and fiction in a way that feels thrilling and deeply human."

Blue Morning Pictures’ Federica Sainte-Rose is set to produce alongside Fernando Bovaira and Simon de Santiago of MOD Producciones. Alice Dawson will also serve as a producer on the film. Mariano Cohn, Gaston Duprat, Andres Duprat, Emanuel Nunez and Fernando Sokolowicz will executive-produce.

"What excites me most about working with Florian on Bunker is the bold new direction he’s taking as a filmmaker. This project marks a clear tonal shift — unsettling and cinematically daring, Bunker speaks to the glaring contradictions that exist in modern society," said Sainte-Rose. "The exploration of fears of the future, from ecological threats to rising social inequality, makes this film both urgent and relevant."

What Does the Future Hold for Pirates of the Caribbean?

Disney has been trying unsuccessfully to make a sixth Pirates movie since 2011. However, a recent report from April 2025 stated that the studio was close to signing a deal to bring Johnny Depp back for another movie as Captain Jack Sparrow, with a senior executive at Disney disclosing, "A script is already in place and Disney views this as a series reboot, meaning the door will be wide open for more future episodes for Johnny, despite everything he has been through."

Source: Deadline