The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise may soon enough set sail once again, as Disney is now planning a reboot of the popular movie series with an all-new creative direction. Disney has tapped Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin to develop a new Pirates movie with series writer Ted Elliott. Jerry Bruckheimer is also expected to produce. With each of the previous five installments from the franchise finding great success at the box office, Disney is likely hoping to bring in even more profit with a fresh take on the series, though it's not yet clear if the movie will be a total reboot or another sequel with some returning characters.

This isn't the first time Disney has tried to reboot the Pirates franchise since the fifth installment hit theaters in 2017. That same year, there was talk about bringing back Joachim Rønning to direct an untitled sixth movie, but those plans wound up stalling. In 2018, Disney went in another direction by hiring Deadpool writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick to write a new screenplay for a Pirates of the Caribbean reboot. Their involvement with the planned project did not last long, as Reese and Wernick withdrew from writing the script for Disney after just a few months in early 2019. This has left the franchise sitting on the table, and it's now clear Disney remains eager to bring us the next Pirates movie in one way or another.

Let's go ahead and address the elephant in the room. The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise is practically synonymous with its lead character Captain Jack Sparrow, but the future of Johnny Depp in the series remains unclear. At this time, it's not known if the character will still be used in this new planned reboot of the movie series, or if Depp would potentially be coming back to reprise him. Previously, it had been reported that Disney was cutting ties with Depp following allegations of domestic abuse from his ex-wife, actress Amber Heard. Depp has since sued Heard for $50 million over the allegations, with a part of his lawsuit suggesting Heard's "false" allegations had cost him his job playing the beloved movie pirate.

The popular movie franchise first began in 2003 with the release of Pirates of the Carribean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Sequels would then follow in 2006, 2007, 2011, and 2017. Although the nature of the adventures would change, the stories typically followed Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow along with Orlando Bloom as Will Turner and Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Swann. The franchise has been a tremendous hit at the box office for Disney, with the profits from the five installments combining to make $4.5 billion in ticket sales. If you were wondering why Disney seems to be so set on developing another movie, that right there is your answer.

It would seem that for many fans of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, the series would never be the same without Captain Jack Sparrow behind the wheel. Still, with or without Johnny Depp, a new Pirates movie from Disney seems bound to make some serious bank at the box office. This news was first reported by The Hollywood Reporter.