While the wind was taken out of the franchise's sails as time passed and moviegoers lost interest, Disney still found massive success with its Pirates of the Caribbean movies.
Much of the credit for that goes to Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow. However, Amber Heard's allegations of domestic violence and a series of messy court battles led to Disney scrapping plans for a sixth movie.
Depp's Hollywood career was put on hold (he's since mounted an attempted comeback), and the studio went back to the drawing board with the franchise. There have long been rumblings about Margot Robbie leading a reboot for at least the past few years. Ayo Edebiri, Austin Butler, and Hailee Steinfeld, meanwhile, are among the names you'll have also seen floating around online.
Producer Jerry Bruckheimer recently spoke with The Wrap and shared a long-overdue update. "We're working on a script," he said. "If we don't have it on the page, it's not gonna get on the screen."
"We had two scripts at one point, and then one kind of dropped out and we kind of went with the other one," Bruckheimer continued, confirming that Barbie star, Robbie, "[is] still involved." The veteran producer didn't comment on Depp's potential involvement, but revealed that Ted Elliott—who has written each of the movies—"worked on it" and "we’ve brought someone else in to fill in the blanks."
Later, Bruckheimer was asked which of the franchises he's worked on have been most difficult to maintain. "The hardest one has been 'Pirates' so far," he acknowledged, eight years after Dead Men Tell No Tales splashed down into theaters to mixed reviews. "That world is so cool and specific. You just gotta find the right way in."
The original series followed the adventures of Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp), with Hector Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), Will Turner (Orlando Bloom), Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley), and Joshamee Gibbs (Kevin McNally).
The franchise kicked off in 2003 with Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, a movie that grossed $654 million worldwide. After the first instalment's success, Disney forged ahead with two sequels, including 2006's Dead Man's Chest and At World's End in 2007. In 2011, we got On Stranger Tides, though Dead Men Tell No Tales ended things on something of a bum note in 2017.
It seems we'll have to wait and see what the future holds in store for the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, but this is probably the most positive update we've had in some time.
Let us know your thoughts on Bruckheimer's comments in the usual place.