Johnny Depp makes surprise appearance as Captain Jack Sparrow seven years on from role

Several years after his last on screen appearance as the character, Johnny Depp has been spotted in costume as Captain Jack Sparrow once more.

Hold your horses, it's not been a sighting on the set of some new Pirates of the Caribbean movie, this was at Donostia University Hospital in San Sebastian, Spain on 26 September.

The actor donned the costume of the much-loved movie pirate to pay a visit to the paediatrics and oncology wards, according to US Weekly.

He had a wander round the wards to meet some of the patients and posed for pictures with the staff looking after them as well.

After the visit the hospital wrote on social media: "From Osakidetza, and especially from all the staff of the Donostia University Hospital, we would like to express our infinite gratitude to Johnny Depp for his time, his support and his energy."

As for why he's in the area at the moment, Depp was around for the premiere of his new film Modì, Three Days on the Wing of Madness.

The movie follows a snippet of the life of Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani (Riccardo Scamarcio), while the likes of Stephen Graham and Al Pacino have supporting roles in the flick.

It's a film that Pacino has long been interested in making and had Martin Scorsese on board with at one point, though couldn't get funding to put it all together, and in the end he got Depp to be the director.

Back on the subject of his hospital visit, this is certainly not the first time he's popped on the pirate costume and dropped in on people for a bit of a meet and greet.

Depp has done this sort of thing quite often, so if you were hoping it was a sign that he's planning on returning to the role soon then you might want to quell your excitement.

Depp has said in the past that he's not coming back to the Pirates of the Caribbean series, though apparently some executives have toyed with the idea of trying to get him involved again.

While opinions on the quality of the Pirates sequels may vary it sounds like plans to resurrect the Pirates of the Caribbean series are looking at a reboot instead.

There had been the idea of a sixth movie starring Margot Robbie which apparently got the green light and was then scrapped.

Instead, producer Jerry Bruckheimer said they were going to reboot the thing.