As far as we know, Disney are still committed to making two brand new Pirates of the Caribbean movies, with Johnny Depp not currently part of the equation. One is slated to be a direct sequel of sorts to Dead Men Tell No Tales, with co-director Joachim Rønning set to fly solo behind the camera, while the other is being written by Birds of Prey and The Flash scribe Christina Hodson, and will see Margot Robbie star and produce.
That’s about the extent of the official information we have available on either project, but a quick glance at the internet will make it abundantly clear that a huge number of fans simply aren’t interested in seeing a new Pirates adventure without Captain Jack Sparrow, which is completely understandable when he was the biggest name, most popular character and main selling point of the entire operation.
It’ll certainly be interesting to see how things turn out with Depp not involved, especially as we’re now hearing from our sources – the same ones who told us Luke Skywalker would be returning to Star Wars long before The Mandalorian‘s season 2 finale dropped – that the Mouse House want to dip into their own back catalogue and bring Captain Hook into the mix, and while that sounds ludicrous at first, there’s actually kind of a precedent for this sort of thing within the context of the franchise.
Davy Jones was a mythological character brought to tentacled life in Dead Man’s Chest, while Blackbeard was a real-life historical figure given supernatural undertones in On Stranger Tides. Captain James Hook, meanwhile, originated in J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, but has gone on to enjoy a long life of his own as a cultural icon, and while it could come off as incredibly stupid and heavy-handed if his theoretical introduction into Pirates of the Caribbean was botched, it would be far from the most ridiculous thing to happen in the series were it to come to fruition.