If there’s money to be made, you can bet that no lucrative franchise is going to stay dormant for long in Hollywood. As a result, we shouldn’t be surprised to hear that another Pirates of the Caribbean property may be on the way—we should have been expecting it all along.
Reports of the next entry in the Pirates series have been bubbling ever since the release of Dead Men Tell No Tales in 2017. That film was meant to be the swan song for series star Johnny Depp, and wasn’t well receieved by critics or audiences, but it still made an insane $794 million at the worldwide box office. It only stands to reason that the films would keep coming … although perhaps in the form of a fresh start.
Film and Disney blogs have been reporting exactly that, with rumors and unsubstantiated reports from within Disney that a series reboot will indeed by the next step, with the desire for a female lead this time around. At the top of Disney’s list? Multiple sites are claiming Avengers, Jumanji and former Doctor Who star Karen Gillan could be the headliner, which might even see her taking on the role of “Redd,” the female pirate from the original Pirates of the Caribbean Disney theme park attraction. However, this casting is all speculation at this point, with the studio apparently also “considering women of color.”
What we can say with more certainty is that Disney has Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin and screenwriter Ted Elliot (who wrote most entries in the Pirates series) exploring new possibilities for the franchise, with Jerry Bruckheimer and Chad Oman producing. The assumption is that this film would be for theatrical release rather than a Disney+ exclusive, with former star Depp nowhere in sight. This would essentially continue the desire to replace Depp as star that began with the poorly received new protagonists in Dead Men Tell No Tales.
We’ll bring you more information on the Pirates of the Caribbean reboot as concrete details emerge.