Margot Robbie and big budget franchise movies haven’t exactly gone hand in hand so far. David Ayer’s Suicide Squad may have been a commercial success thanks to bringing in close to $750 million globally, but critics and fans both greeted the flick with a shrug after the studio had butchered the director’s original vision in the edit suite. James Gunn’s soft reboot, though, is already looking in much better shape, as he’s admitted that he was afforded the all-important creative freedom that his predecessor never received.
Birds of Prey, meanwhile, holds the unwanted distinction of being the lowest-grossing effort in the DCEU’s history after bombing at the box office earlier this year despite the reviews and user scores both rating it at a solid 78% on Rotten Tomatoes. Undeterred, the Australian actress is now set to headline another high profile franchise flick in the not too distant future after it was revealed that Robbie would be reteaming with Birds of Prey writer Christina Hodson to tackle a new Pirates of the Caribbean movie.
Of course, with fans roundly backing Johnny Depp and launching petitions to have him reinstated to both of the series that he was dropped from, it might be best to wait a little while and see if the furor blows over before forging ahead with development. In a recent interview, though, Robbie revealed that her Pirates of the Caribbean spinoff is still in the works and is going to have lots of girl power, news that probably won’t be taken too well by certain sections of the internet.
“[It will have] lots of girl power. No, it’s too early to talk about it. I love Christina, obviously. I’m not a producer on Pirates, so I’ll sit back and kind of wait for the process. We’re really, really excited at the prospect of adding obviously a very key female element to that world.”
The Pirates of the Caribbean series was hardly renowned for well-rounded and complex female characters, so at least the actress is planning on approaching the mythology from a different angle in the hopes that a fresh take will arrest the gradual decline in quality that’s plagued the series since the first installment. Though with the backlash from Depp’s legions of followers, it’ll be interesting to see how it performs without Jack Sparrow involved.
