After years in development, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, the fifth title in the high-grossing Disney franchise, is finally unfurling its sails and kicking off production in Queensland, Australia. The pic, which will find Johnny Depp reprising the role of Captain Jack Sparrow, follows Pirates‘ most critically reviled installment and, as such, will likely determine whether the franchise still has a creative future.
Espen Sandberg and Joachim Rønning (Kon-Tiki) are handling directorial duties on Dead Men Tell No Tales, and Jeff Nathanson (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Catch Me If You Can) penned the script. Disney just unveiled a new synopsis for the fivequel, promising another risky adventure on the high seas:
Thrust into an all-new adventure, a down-on-his-luck Captain Jack Sparrow (Depp) finds the winds of ill-fortune blowing even more strongly when deadly ghost pirates led by his old nemesis, the terrifying Captain Salazar (Javier Bardem), escape from the Devil’s Triangle, determined to kill every pirate at sea…including him. Captain Jack’s only hope of survival lies in seeking out the legendary Trident of Poseidon, a powerful artifact that bestows upon its possessor total control over the seas.
In addition to Bardem, Dead Men Tell No Tales will star Kaya Scodelario (The Maze Runner), Brenton Thwaites (The Giver) and Golshifteh Farahani (The Patience Stone). Additionally, Geoffrey Rush, Kevin R. McNally and Stephen Graham will return as series stalwarts Barbossa, Gibbs and Scrum. It had been rumored that Orlando Bloom would return as Will Turner, the new captain of the Flying Dutchman, but it’s still unclear whether there was any validity to that scoop.
After On Stranger Tides, the weakest of all the Pirates films, Disney has some work to do to convince that the franchise still has life in it. Especially on the heels of Depp-powered flops like The Lone Ranger, Transcendence and Mortdecai, that may be easier said than done.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales sets sail in theaters on July 7th, 2017, provided the shoot goes off without a hitch.
