Disney’s Best Live-Action Fantasy Franchise Started In Theaters 23 Years Ago, & We’re Still Waiting for the Reboot

Disney used to solely be known for its animated projects, but the company is now equally successful with its live-action outings, including its best fantasy franchise yet. Throughout the 2010s and 2020s, Disney has found massive success with sci-fi franchises like the MCU, Star Wars, and Avatar, all of which the company acquired after they started. However, even before these existing IP, Disney attempted to make their own fantasy and sci-fi series with projects like John Carter and TRON.

In their attempts to make a successful live-action franchise, Disney has tried to use the notoriety of their theme park brands to launch movie series. These have varied in success, with attempts like The Country Bears, Haunted Mansion, and Jungle Cruise all finding varying levels of success. However, one of Disney’s theme park movies was so successful that it launched their best live-action fantasy series over two decades ago.

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl Hit Theaters 23 Years Ago Today

Before the MCU and Star Wars, Disney’s most popular and successful live-action series was undoubtedly Pirates of the Caribbean. The franchise began as a ride at the Disney Parks, with the first one opening at Disneyland in 1967. The attraction became one of Disney’s most iconic, but the beloved ride didn’t expand beyond the parks for a few decades. However, that all changed when Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was released on July 9, 2003.

Directed by Gore Verbinski, the film tells the story of a governor’s daughter who is kidnapped by a band of cursed pirates. So, a blacksmith and a drunken pirate begrudgingly team up to rescue her and take down the crew of the Black Pearl.

The film was a massive success, with it earning rave reviews and making $654.3 million on a budget of $140 million. This was undoubtedly helped by the involvement of Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom, both of whom were massive names in the early 2000s. The movie had an incredible score, fantastic visual effects, and revived the pirate genre after decades of pirate films failing.

The Curse of the Black Pearl was such a smash hit that it launched a massive multimedia franchise, including four live-action movie sequels. Verbinski’s trilogy continued with 2006’s Dead Man’s Chest and 2007’s At World’s End, which made $1.066 billion and $963.4 million, respectively. Verbenski left the franchise after its third film, but with numbers like that, Disney couldn’t let the series end. So, they followed up with two more movies: 2011’s On Stranger Tides and 2017’s Dead Men Tell No Tales. While these two entries received a much poorer critical reception than their predecessors, they were still financially successful, making $1.046 billion and $795.9 million, respectively.

Despite constantly bringing in major numbers at the box office, no Pirates of the Caribbean movie has been released since 2017. This is due to several factors, mostly the real-life controversies surrounding Johnny Depp, the decreasing critical reception of the franchise, and the comparative box office disappointment of Dead Men Tell No Tales. However, the franchise isn’t over, as the future of Pirates of the Caribbean is already in the works.

The Future of POTC Is Coming, & Here’s What It Is

News about the future of Pirates of the Caribbean has been coming out for years now. Unfortunately, much of this news indicates that Disney has been constantly changing plans. Dead Men Tell No Tales directors Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg had plans for a sequel, but the sixth movie’s development stalled around late 2018. Disney brought on various writers and creatives to develop another film, but nothing ever came of it. Then, the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard trial in 2022 threw the future of the franchise into uncertainty, as Depp claimed that he didn’t want to return to the franchise.

In 2024, franchise producer Jerry Bruckheimer announced an interesting plan. As it turned out, there were two different Pirates of the Caribbean scripts in development. One was a reboot that would feature characters from the previous films, while the other was a spin-off set to star Margot Robbie. Now, it is rumored that Pirates of the Caribbean 6 could mix both scripts, featuring elements of the Margot Robbie story with returning characters.

After the explosion of updates throughout 2024, news surrounding the sixth film has been a little quieter. The project is seemingly in development, although we don’t know what form Pirates of the Caribbean 6 will take. However, it seems likely that the film will move away from Captain Jack Sparrow and instead focus on kicking off a new Pirates of the Caribbean saga.

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