Did you miss Pirates of the Caribbean? No? Too bad, you’re getting another movie. Margot Robbie is signed on to star in a new Pirates of the Caribbean movie, which will be written by Birds of Prey screenwriter Christina Hodson.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, this movie is not supposed to be a spin-off of the Captain Jack storyline from the first five films but “a wholly original story with new characters under the Pirates moniker, itself inspired by the long-running attraction at Disneyland.” They also point out that a reboot of the franchise is already underway by Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin. Both projects are still in the early stages of development, so we don’t have a lot of information on either of them.
My question ends up being why Disney would continue to put money into a franchise whose ship has already sunk? And not even that long ago — the last film was in 2017. And while the Robbie film is not a reboot, since both films are in the early stages of development, we might end up with Robbie’s movie becoming a reboot. It could also be that Disney is looking to launch another cinematic universe, though they have better franchises to work with than Pirates.
Another concern is using a female-led as a way of getting brownie points rather than attempting to make anything genuinely good. While Hodson has proven her chops as a writer with the critically-praised Birds of Prey, I worry what the studio might push her, and whoever signs on to direct, to go in a different direction. Namely, a direction with lots of inside jokes, cameos, and poor rehashes of the same plot lines that failed in the franchise’s other films. Ultimately, we will just have to wait and see.
Dead franchises tell no tales indeed.