TheQuartering [12/28/2020]

This story seems totally insane to me, but also entirely possible given what we know about Hollywood.

According to GiantFreakingRobot:

Disney has been struggling with the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, even before Johnny Depp’s personal troubles almost certainly made the series lose Captain Jack Sparrow. Since Pirates of the Caribbean hit its box office peak with 2006’s Dead Man’s Chest, the domestic take has continuously shrunk. With Pirates needing to shake things up, a new rumor says that Disney is planning to diversify future Pirates of the Caribbean installments.

The news comes from Daniel Richtman, who says on his Patreon page that just as Disney made Marvel and Star Wars franchises with great female leads and casts full of non-white characters, the company seems poised to do the same thing with Pirates of the Caribbean. With Pirates of the Caribbean expanding in the future, it makes sense that Disney’s biggest live-action franchise should follow suit with their Marvel and Star Wars properties.

Since it’s introduction in 2003 with The Curse of the Black Pearl, the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise has been the most successful live-action series in Disney history. The second, third, and fourth installments of the film each made over one billion dollars, or came extremely close to going over that hurdle. However, 2017’s Dead Men Tell No Tales was quite the disappointment, despite making $794 million worldwide. With the fifth film only receiving $172 million from domestic audiences, it became clear that Western audiences were losing interest in Pirates of the Caribbean.