2017 brought us Disney’s Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Lies. It made $794.9 million worldwide, which is more than what Curse Of The Black Pearl made, but that is still the lowest of the whole franchise.
It seems like the cause of that is fatigue with the franchise. People are accustomed to seeing the same thing from these movies. So, the best thing to do is to reboot the films. And not to bring Johnny Depp back, and focus on other characters instead.
Now, back in October, there were reports of both Disney wanting to reboot the franchise, and that they were thinking about not having Johnny Depp return for it. Well, Walt Disney Studios President of Production, Sean Bailey, had talked to THR recently about bring on Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick as writers for a possible reboot, and if the franchise can survive with Johnny Depp.
We want to bring in a new energy and vitality. I love the [Pirates] movies, but part of the reason Paul and Rhett are so interesting is that we want to give it a kick in the pants. And that’s what I’ve tasked them with.
While this response didn’t actually answer the question, it does seem, however, that the Pirates franchise could survive with out Johnny Depp. And if that’s the case, then more people will go and see it.
