For one brief moment, we really could have had it all. Margot Robbie, one of the most talented women working today (and one of my personal favorites) was working on a new Pirates of the Caribbean movie that would take the focus of the franchise in a different direction. But now it seems as if that is dead in the water.
In a new interview with Vanity Fair, Robbie talked a lot about her upcoming film Babylon as well as projects she has in the pipeline. One of those projects was a female-led Pirates of the Caribbean film that she says Disney no longer wants to do.
Robbie briefly talked about the idea she had and revealed that the studio has moved on from the film, saying: “We had an idea and we were developing it for a while, ages ago, to have more of a female-led—not totally female-led, but just a different kind of story—which we thought would’ve been really cool, but I guess they don’t want to do it.”
Which I just want to know why? Because honestly get Margot Robbie on the Disney payroll in general because I have lots of characters I’d like to her play but also because this movie sounded good. Because the franchise needed new life breathed into it and that’s what this would have done. Instead, we’re left without every getting a whiff of it.
Okay but that doesn’t mean we need Jack Sparrow
The Pirates of the Caribbean movies are ones that go from perfect down to a sliding scale barreling towards just plain bad with each new movie. And while I would love to see Elizabeth Swann and Will Turner again, the franchise hinged a lot of Jack Sparrow.
When the Robbie film was announced, it was a lot of people complaining about them trying to replace Jack Sparrow which I find to be odd given that the Pirates of the Caribbean movies were not solely his story. But more than that, I just think it’s weird to go so completely into only letting a man be the lead of a franchise and not letting anyone else tell a story therein. That’d be like being furious that Tony Stark isn’t in every single movie of the MCU.
If other franchises can share the world, why couldn’t we have had that with Pirates? Well, it doesn’t matter now (seemingly) anyway but getting to explore the great sea with a new crew of pirates, especially one that was primarily female-led, would have probably revived this story.
This Margot Robbie movie was going to be the fresh take that the franchise needed.
Not more of the same characters over and over again but a new take into the world would have been a good thing and I know that people are very loudly wanting Jack Sparrow back for their own personal reasons but I’m not going to watch the same movie again and again. I’d rather wish that this Margot Robbie movie came out instead.
(image: Warner Bros.)
