Hollywood is one of the most uncertain places on which one can rely. Be it an individual or a movie or a series, it can rise to extreme heights and plummet below rock-bottom overnight. “Pirates of the Caribbean” was one of the most valuable and profitable possessions of Disney that also started with a bang. This classic won millions of fans across the globe and took home billions of dollars from the box office. But lately, the fate of the franchise and of its lucky charm, Jack Sparrow has been hanging by a thread. In fact, trying to figure out what’s happening to them is like looking for a needle in a haystack.
A franchise that is worth about $3-4 Billion is not something that Disney would give up that easily. Though the work on the upcoming instalments has started, very little has come to fruition. All the delay navigates to the issues happening behind the scenes with the star Johnny Depp. His libel case against Amber Heard and the UK tabloid may have cost him the iconic role of Jack Sparrow. Depp’s future with the Pirates seems bleaker especially after he got fired from the Fantastic Beasts franchise. He was the face of the Pirates franchise for whom fans stayed loyal to the movies. Fans are not just bummed by his possible departure but also determined to boycott the franchise if they drop Jack Sparrow.
Even though there is no Pirates of the Caribbean for fans without Jack Sparrow, the franchise might be planning to go for a reboot. Whether this reboot will take place in the same universe or a different one, where Jack Sparrow doesn’t exist, is still a mystery. The project started in 2018 when Disney decided to collab with Deadpool writers Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese. But the plan was nixed after the writers left the project and the studios reappointed Ted Elliot, the original writer of Pirates, and Craig Mazin of Chernobyl in 2019.
Rumours about an actress taking over the lead role began to spark after Disney added a female pirate named Redd to the theme park of Pirates of the Caribbean. Building on this rumour, Margot Robbie, popularly known as Harley Quinn, and Karen Gillan, aka Nebula from Guardians of the Galaxy, were also speculated to join the franchise as the protagonists. If the reboot takes place in the present universe, we can expect the other existing characters to reprise their roles. However, things might not feel the same without Depp, even if the films get shot with “pirates” on the “Caribbean”.
