Pirates of the Caribbean: How should it go after Johnny Depp's sacking?

Pirates of the Caribbean

Pirates of the Caribbean is one of the few blockbusters I would call "perfect". Similar to Raiders of the Lost Treasure and The Mask of Zorro, the various ingredients, humor, action, tension and romance are simply superbly balanced. In combination with the well-presented star cast, the immediately recognizable music and the bombastic backdrop as well as costume and effect work, they result in a modern classic that, when viewed today, seems to come from a completely different, long-forgotten era.

Table of contents

1 Unique and impressive like a ship in a bottle 2 Disney on the hunt for the doubloons 3 The captain sent over the plank 4 Recommended editorial content by new and old pirates At this point you can find external content from [PLATTFORM]. To protect your personal data, external integrations are only displayed if you confirm this by clicking on "Load all external content": Load all external content I consent to external content being displayed to me. This means that personal data is transmitted to third-party platforms. Read more about our privacy policy . External content More on this in our data protection declaration.

Unique and impressive like a ship in a bottle

In addition to Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush has also appeared in all previous films in the series. Source: Disney I don't want to hack the current blockbuster landscape and Disney's Marvel universe at all, if only because I don't think most of the films are bad at all. But where in 2003 it was extremely unlikely that Disney would make a film in a genre that had been declared dead that was not part of a successful franchise or the filming of a bestseller, that seems almost impossible today. Even then, Pirates of the Caribbean (buy now € 8.79) was a gigantic risk and its emergence an absolute special case. It is also a small miracle that the film has the quality it has and was so well received all over the world, considering the turbulent production history.

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Pirates of the Caribbean: Return Jack Sparrow back?

Rumor has it that Disney would like Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow back on board the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie. 1

sequels without leading actor - can that work?

Films and series are shot again and again without the main actor (s). We took a closer look at some examples for you. var lstExcludedArticleTicker = '1372139,1344682,1267013'; But the stars were right. Johnny Depp's performance as flamboyant pirate captain Jack Sparrow shook the studio, but was instantly iconic. The scene in which we see the proud pirate for the first time is a small masterpiece in itself. With young stars Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom, who was considered a sex symbol after the Lord of the Rings trilogy, they were too The main roles were cast with audience appeal.

And character actors like Geoffrey Rush and Jonathan Price brought exactly the joy of playing and gravitas that was expected of them. The soundtrack by Hans Zimmer is one of the film scores with the highest recognition value and was remixed by almost every DJ in the world in the following years. The result: shortly after the pirate adventure was released, Disney had a new mega-franchise in its catalog.

Disney on the hunt for the doubloons

Margot Robbie Source: Warner Bros. Two sequels became direct Turned off in one piece and even topped the financial success of the debut, after the end of the trilogy the actual main actors Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom said goodbye, Depp, whose Jack Sparrow had clearly turned out to be the crowd's favorite, but returned for another offshoot back. Director Gore Verbinski passed the baton on to Rob Marshall, who made Pirates of the Caribbean on Stranger Tides not only one of the most successful films of 2011, but also the most expensive Hollywood film ever. A fifth, equally successful part then only followed six years later with Dead Men Tell No Tales, in which, in addition to franchise newcomer Javier Bardem, many old friends from the original three films were represented again.

A continuation of the series is definitely planned, but development was stuck for a long time due to the personal difficulties of and with Johnny Depp. Sources said at times that there are even two new offshoots in the works, but only one was officially announced: A complete reboot in which Depp should not be involved and in which Margot Robbie will supposedly take the lead.

Sent the captain over the plank

In part four, Jack Sparrow was promoted from the secondary character to the main character. Source: Disney A risky decision in that Johnny Depp was probably always the reason for a large part of the audience to see the films in the first place. Margot Robbie is a good and popular actress, but the character of Jack Sparrow is inseparable from the franchise. At Disney, there is no doubt that there is little interest in a reboot and that many viewers would prefer a return of the enfant terrible rather than a completely new character in the center. This is of course also due to the fact that a few years have now passed and the Jack Sparrow oversaturation, which the series has often been accused of by their own fan base and critics, has probably been digested by most of them in the meantime.

At a time when many spin-offs and remakes bring in money, but fail large parts of the trade press and their core audience (think, for example, of Ghostbusters 2016, the conclusion of the new Star Wars trilogy and the Fantastic Beasts Films), the suggestion of a classic pirate adventure with all of our favorite captains actually sounds downright nostalgic in comparison. Even if the first sequels with Depp couldn’t match the quality of the grandiose debut.

But what about regardless of the chances of success? Is a reboot a good idea from a creative point of view? Many would say that remakes, spin-offs and reboots are not particularly creative in and of themselves, but there are also some examples where a reorientation has brought a breath of fresh air into an existing universe and introduced numerous new, interesting ideas. The new Mad Max is great, as are the Creed films and Into the Spierverse and the Star Wars universe is constantly being expanded with animation and real series that are extremely popular with fans.

Von new and old pirates

Basically I have a positive attitude towards the idea of ​​a new Pirates-of-the-Caribbean series, even without a dork. There are certainly enough seafaring fairy tales and sailor's yarn that Disney can still use as a starting point for fantasy pirate stories without having to look at Monkey Island again (I know that both franchises are on the Pirates-of-the-Caribbean-Ride in Disneyland based, the similarities in characters and story go beyond setting and look). And even if Jack Sparrow has to sit out (maybe only for the time being), that doesn't have to mean that nobody can follow in his footsteps. Re-casting the role or focusing on a younger version of the character would be absolutely wrong. Instead, I'd be happy if other character actors had the chance to create characters as iconic as Depp was allowed to. It doesn't necessarily have to be a pirate who replaces Captain Jack Sparrow 1: 1 or shows his character traits.

The last part so far "Salazar's Rache" or "Dead Men Tell No Tales" was released in 2017 . Source: Disney These days every new movie has to be part of some established franchise, but if that's what it brings, we can have a new pirate adventure instead of just the next live-action prequel to a popular cartoon or superhero or Get a Star Wars film from Disney, then that's the way it should be. I want more pirates. And who knows, maybe Depp will eventually overcome his demons and various legal proceedings and get back to the series. Until then, someone else is welcome to sail across the seven seas and experience adventures with a daring crew, recover treasures and break old sailors' curses. From me Margot Robbie. Why not? The actress has her own production company and has a strong creative influence on her projects. In collaboration with a person as a director who has a similarly clear vision as Gore Verbinski had for the first part, an iconic role could well emerge here again.

As long as the same mixture of horror, humor, Romance and good music are served, I am willing to come on board. Provided that the new offshoot is not shot in a studio a hundred meters from the green screen, but actually shot again in the Caribbean. The handcrafted flair is a big plus that the Disney funding brings and a big part of the charm of the range. I also wish that the action in the sword fighting sequences would be reduced to a more believable level again. I don't want to miss scenes like the fight on the rolling wooden wheel in part two, but such set pieces should be an exception and not the rule. When Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) and Jack Sparrow fight a duel in the pouring rain while standing on the mast of a ship, that's a bit too exaggerated for me personally. When the characters constantly defy the laws of physics, I no longer sympathize with them as strongly because the feeling arises that they are invulnerable super people anyway.

A trend that the later parts of the series have established , but can definitely be preserved: appearances by venerable pirate lords played by aging rock stars. Whether Keith Richards or Paul McCartney, the cameos of the rock aristocracy always make me smile and are allowed to continue as long as there are aging musicians. Stevie Nicks, Iggy Pop, Billy Idol and Nina Hagen are all still with us, just waiting to be made up to see pirates and flown to the Caribbean at Disney's expense.

What would you say for the future of Want a franchise? With dork or without? And who would you like to see in the role of a pirate?