Pirates of the Caribbean Franchise to Reboot! Good or Bad Idea?
This year the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise turns 21 years old. Just a few days back, producer Jerry Bruckheimer gave an update on the latest installment in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. What are my thoughts on this? Does this make me excited for the future?
WHAT IS SAID?: If you don’t know, Jerry Bruckeimer is a legendary producer. He’s produced all of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, Top Gun: Maverick, National Treasure, Remember the Titans, Black Hawk Down, Armageddon, and so many other movies. He said in a report that the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie will be a reboot. That’s all that was said, he didn’t give any updates or anything like that. But he did confirm that the next movie is a reboot. We do know that Craig Mazin is writing it, if you don’t know who he is, he wrote Chernobyl and The Last of Us. Both of which are highly acclaimed tv shows of the last five years. He wrote a screenplay that I guess is finished. Disney seems very proud of the script, they really like the script that he turned in. They’ve been talking about doing another Pirates of the Caribbean movie for years now. In 2020, it was reported that Disney was developing two Pirates of the Caribbean movies, one would be a sixth film in the original franchise and the other would be a reboot starring Margot Robbie. Craig Mazin and Ted Elliot were hired to write the sixth film in the original franchise. In November 2022, Robbie said that her Pirates of the Caribbean that was being written by Christina Hodson was canceled. “We had an idea and we were developing it for a while, ages ago, to have more of a female-led-not totally female-led, but just a different kind of story-which we thought would’ve been really cool. But I guess they don’t want to do it,” said Robbie. Later, Bruckheimer said that Robbie’s movie will be made at some point. He clarified that the project wasn’t dead, but Disney wanted Mazin and Elliot’s film to be made first.
FRANCHISE THOUGHTS: So, if you’ve seen my favorite movie lists the original film, The Curse of the Black Pearl is one of my favorite movies of all time. That’s like a top 20 favorite of all time for me, I love it and it still holds up after watching countless times of the year. My family loves that movie, in fact our family group chat’s icon is a picture of Jack Sparrow. So Pirates of the Caribbean is a big part of my life, that original film is an all timer for me. The sequels range in quality a good bit. I like the two Gore Verbenski sequels, they’re not great. I know some people love them and think they’re better than the original. I’m not that crazy for them, but they’re solid films. On Stranger Tides is so forgettable, the movie cost almost $400 million to make and there’s not one memorable sequence in the entire film. I know a lot of people hated that latest film, Dead Men Tell No Tales. It’s fine, I have fun with it, although it’s not fantastic.
IS A REBOOT NEEDED?: With all of that said, what do I make of them rebooting this franchise? If I’m being honest, I think reboot is the best way to go with the franchise. Start the franchise over and do it’s own thing. The Johnny Depp franchise kind of went off the rails, they clearly didn’t have enough story to tell with Jack Sparrow. But they kept printing money so they made more of it. I think a reboot with a clean slate, not connected to Jack Sparrow is the right direction. I know I said I love The Curse of the Black Pearl, but there’s more stories to tell without Jack Sparrow. It’s about pirates and being at sea. Especially with the Johnny Depp, Amber Heard trial I think it’ll be hard to get Depp back. I know people will be mad if Depp doesn’t return, they’ll be mad at Disney for firing Johnny Depp. I would be more excited for a reboot than a sixth film with Johnny Depp. I haven’t seen Craig Mazin’s tv shows but they’ve both gotten fantastic reviews, I mean to see them. I’ll most likely binge season one of The Last of Us before season two comes out. The fact that he’s hired and Disney really liked his pitch and script has me excited. Margot Robbie has really proven herself as a movie star and producer. She produced both Barbie and Saltburn, both great movies from last year. And if her production team was behind it, I have faith it might have been solid. I don’t know which one I would want to see, both sound interesting and have potential to be really good. D23 is happening in August, I wouldn’t be surprised if we get some big updates on this film. Whether that’s regarding casting, release date, whatever it may be. I think (and hope) we get some big updates at D23 in August.
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