Disney is planning to return to the pirate's life with a reboot of one of its most successful sagas. Like everyone, our first thought we all had was: what is going to happen to Jack Sparrow? The pirate captain, played by Johnny Depp, is the heart and soul of the franchise, which has made more than $4 billion in the 14 years that it has been around, so a return to the sea could be complicated. It is true that the House of Mouse has never cared much for the personal life of its actors, but the effect of indignant fans of 'Fantastic Beasts' who think that the actor is unworthy of being a part of their favourite universe, goes to show that relying on Sparrow again could be a make or break.
This question, which is certainly up in the air for the followers, is far from having a concrete answer as at the moment we know almost nothing about the reboot, other than that it would be written by two of the most coveted writers.
According to exclusive reports from the North American media Deadline, the aforementioned studio has met with Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, the script writers of 'Deadpool' and 'Zombieland', in order to start outlining the screenplay for a new marine adventure. But, while this announcement was exciting, it was not only these two successful writers from the world of blockbusters (remember that 'Deadpool' made over $780 million worldwide) who would already be on board the ship. Jerry Bruckheimer, the producer of the five previous installments who will continue to captain the ship. Bruckheimer has also produced films such as 'Armageddon', 'Top Gun', 'Pearl Harbour', 'Bad Boys' and 'Black Hawk Down'. So not much really.
Better have a Part 6?
To be fair, there could not come a better time to go back to the start with a saga whose last film did not get the fantastic feedback which Disney expected, neither in terms of reviews nor profits. 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales' only achieved 29% on Rotten Tomatoes which was not a great average. Although the box office was lucrative, it was a significant drop from 'Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides'. And this fifth installment in the franchise, which features Javier Bardem as the villain, made just over $700 million world wide, while the fourth, which features Penelope Cruz as a none-too-popular love interest of Sparrow, made more than a billion.
All of this goes to show that the public won't jump on board the ship in any old way. Disney discovered just that with the generational reboot of Brenton Thwaites and Kaya Scodelario, who were both just shameless copies of Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley. They fit the mold, but couldn't really do justice to a saga which had such sensational characters played by the likes of Depp, Geoffrey Rush, or an unrecognisable Bill Nighy. Thus the idea of retiring this dying franchise in order to regroup and come back fighting doesn't seem too far fetched. What do you think? Could 'Pirates of the Caribbean' work without Jack?
