There have now been as many years since the last Pirates of the Caribbean movie as there are seas, with fifth installment Dead Men Tell No Tales releasing seven years ago, back in 2017. Since then, the franchise has struggled to move forward along a post-Johnny Depp course — though not for lack of trying.
In late May 2024, producer Jerry Bruckheimer confirmed (via Deadline) that each of Disney’s competing Pirates movies in development are still on their way, with the studio keen to do both. For context, that’s one film that’s been touted as a reboot and one being called a spinoff, which has Margot Robbie attached to produce.
I’m not a Disney exec, and have no knowledge of what goes on in the Mouse House boardroom (thought it’s probably something like the Mattel scenes from Barbie), but I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the reason no new Pirates movie has yet materialized is because Disney is lacking a clear vision of how to progress things without Jack Sparrow, hence why there’s two separate projects in the works at the same time.
By the sounds of things, then, it sounds like the Pirates IP’s most persistent problem is rearing its head all over again: it’s getting too complicated. So, if you’re listening, Disney, here’s one way to simplify it and set Pirates up for a high-sailing comeback.
Disney needs to remember that Jack Sparrow is not the main character of the Pirates movies, and he never was
X user @JesabelRaay went viral in the wake of Bruckheimer’s comments for sharing her pitch for Pirates 6, and clearly it’s one that most people wholeheartedly endorse. “I have no idea why we can’t just follow Will Turner & Elizabeth Swann on a new adventure in some kind of PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN legacy sequel,” they wrote. “Davy Jones could be the main antagonist once again as he was teased in the last film in an end credits scene.”
This hot take really gets to the heart of the dissonance between what fans want from the Pirates films and what Disney thinks fans want. It’s often noted that, in The Curse of the Black Pearl, Jack is a scene-stealing supporting character, a mischievous facilitator for the plot, while the protagonists are clearly Will and Elizabeth. You could argue that Jack takes over a little for the next two chapters in the original trilogy, Dead Man’s Chest and At World’s End, but the emotional journey of Will and Elizabeth, both their romance and their individual character development, certainly remain at the core of the evolving story.
Where the franchise really took an artistic downturn, however, was with the fourth and fifth entries — On Stranger Tides and Dead Men, which sport a measly 33% and 30% on Rotten Tomatoes apiece. These awkwardly pushed Jack into center stage, even with the welcome return of Will (and a silent cameo from Elizabeth) in number five. Fans loved when this one ended on a post-credits tease at Davy Jones’ return, but it sounds like Disney has no interest in pursuing this plotline further.
Will and Elizabeth remain one of the most popular movie couples of the 2000s, while Jones is still right up there with the finest cinematic CG characters ever, so there’s plenty of wind to fill the Pirates universe’s sails even without Captain Jack. Sadly, it seems Disney wants to bring us the wrong horizon.