It is difficult to overstate just how massively successful and culturally ubiquitous the Pirates of the Caribbean movies were during the early to mid ‘00s. The original trilogy of films were not just marquee blockbusters, they were essentially the sole films keeping Walt Disney Studios in the green during this decade. As Disney’s animated films were faltering left and right (these were the years between the end of the Disney Renaissance of the ‘90s and the start of the Frozen-led era of 2013 and beyond, meaning that audiences had lackluster entries like Home on the Range to look forward to), the Pirates of the Caribbean films became so synonymous with the House of Mouse’s brand that they practically were the brand.
Because the films were so widely successful, Disney kept the franchise going for years even after its cultural moment had well and truly faded, with the fifth and final entry being Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, which somehow released in 2017 and was a critical and commercial disappointment.
Earlier this week, amidst the changing-of-the-guard at Disney, with Josh D’Amaro officially confirmed to be taking over as the CEO, rumors emerged once again that the company is interested in rebooting the dormant Pirates franchise. Online, these rumors were met by the same kind of vehement reaction that many such rumors have been met with over the years, predominantly concerned with one name: Johnny Depp.
In the years since those original three Pirates films, Depp has become an increasingly contentious public figure, in ways that are frankly way too much to get into here. But suffice it to say, there’s a significant portion of people who feel strongly that Depp needs to return and play a role in any new Pirates film. However, I would argue that’s very much not the case. In fact, Depp isn’t the secret sauce that made those films work so well; Gore Verbinski is.
If you don’t know who Gore Verbinski is, you should. He was the director behind those initial three Pirates films, as well as the likes of The Ring, Rango, and his most recent film, the excellent science fiction black comedy, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die. Notably, the two most recent Pirates films, 2011’s On Stranger Tides and the aforementioned Dead Men Tell No Tales, were not directed by Verbinski, and often felt like lifeless retreads as a result. Say what you want about Verbinski’s first three and their ever-escalating nature, but they are insane, passion-filled, and deeply idiosyncratic blockbusters. Hell, the third film, At World’s End, literally cuts from the Disney castle opening logo to a mass hanging of men, women, and children. Verbinski pulled that stunt in Disney’s biggest blockbuster of 2007 and got away with it; that is absolutely insane and a testament to his ruthless ambition.
As for Depp, the actor was one of the only main players who did stick around after Verbinski’s trilogy, with Jack Sparrow becoming the defacto protagonist of those latter two movies in a way that felt defanged and utterly dull. So do I need Depp to return for a new Pirates film? Absolutely not. The appeal of seeing an in-his-prime Depp playing this gonzo character is now completely gone, having been stripped bare by years of saturation and over-exposure. But do I need Verbinski to return for a new Pirates film? That makes a much bigger difference in my opinion, as the filmmaker is very much still making tactile, outside-the-box, high-concept movies that swing for the fences in a way that, frankly, I don’t trust Disney to let any new filmmaker do.