Avast ye landlubbers! Disney is exploring a reboot of the Pirates of the Caribbean series, and has already met with Deadpool writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, according to Deadline.
Disney certainly wants to keep the billion dollar franchise alive, but it seems odd the studio would attempt to wipe the slate clean with a reboot after the fifth entry amassed a still impressive $794 million worldwide.
In any event, the studio is hoping Reese and Wernick, who also penned Zombieland and its sequel, along with Michael Bay’s upcoming Netflix action film 6 Underground starring Ryan Reynolds, can breathe new life into the popular franchise.
The trade reports Jerry Bruckheimer will stay onboard as producer, but that the reboot may send the entire cast – yes, even Captain Jack Sparrow – to Davy Jones’ locker. Such a move might seem necessary given Johnny Depp’s recent negative publicity, but a Pirates film sans Depp could prove to be a box office blunder. Depp was nominated for an Academy Award for the first film and is one of the primary reasons audiences shelled out over $4.5 billion at the box office during the series’ impressive 14-year run.
Depp will next be seen in Fantastic Beasts: the Crimes of Grindelwald on November 13, and has signed on to star in Minamata, a biopic on famed war photographer W. Eugene Smith for HanWay Films.
