Disney is looking to take Pirates of the Caribbean in a new direction with Pirates of the Caribbean 6, but rather than reboot it should bring back - and kill off - Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow. Pirates of the Caribbean has been a flagship franchise for Disney since it set sail back in 2003, with a collective box office haul of more than $4.5 billion across the five films released so far, and Depp firmly established as the face of the series.
However, while the box office for Pirates of the Caribbean has made it into something of a guaranteed hit for the Mouse House, the fifth installment, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, did represent a significant drop-off in that regard, with a total of just under $800 million making it the second-lowest in the franchise, behind just the first movie. Alongside that, there have been diminishing returns in terms of the critical approval of the films, with a sharp and then more steady decline in reviews since Curse of the Black Pearl.
That's led to a change in approach for Disney, with talk that Pirates of the Caribbean 6 will be a reboot, which also means there's no clear place for Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow (and given the actor's own controversies in recent years, that isn't all too surprising). However, while it makes sense for the studio to try and navigate a different path for Pirates of the Caribbean 6, it should still bring back Jack Sparrow - even if it's just to send him to his watery grave.
Pirates of the Caribbean 6 Shouldn't Be A Reboot
The latest update on the franchise is that Disney is looking to reboot Pirates of the Caribbean, with Chernobyl's Craig Mazin set to team-up with long-time Pirates scribe Ted Elliott to pen a whole new chapter. As mentioned, that's understandable as Disney looks to rejuvenate the franchise and keep it as a viable cash-cow, but it's not wholly necessary. Making Pirates of the Caribbean 6 instead would allow Disney to continue the mainline saga, while still having ways to freshen things up.
There's an extensive world of pirate history and mythology that these movies can still tap into, and it should be possible for Disney to do that without forcing a major reboot. They've built the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise around Jack Sparrow, and so any reboot would have to struggle with how they dealt with that: re-casting the role seems almost impossible, but any new character who was directly replacing him, while Jack is still alive, would be in his shadow. A sixth movie could still take the franchise to new places, but it could do so while still being set in the same universe and with established characters able to at least be referenced, if not appear (such as Orlando Bloom's Will Turner). Pirates of the Caribbean 5 didn't give the franchise or its main story closure, so it'd be better to have a movie that ties things up and sets up the future, rather than just starting all over again.
Pirates of the Caribbean 6 Needs To Bring Back Jack Sparrow - To Resolve His Fate
If Disney does decide to move away from a reboot, then it needs to bring back Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow (whose future is currently uncertain, regardless of which direction the studio goes in). Depp's star power has waned in recent years, with a combination of general fatigue, weaker performances, and controversy surrounding him, but when it comes to Pirates of the Caribbean 6 he's still a pull, and a movie with him in it would likely fare better at the box office than one with without him. But more than that is Pirates of the Caribbean 6 needs to give some sense of closure to Jack Sparrow's story arc.
This in part is because of the issue with a reboot too: it's difficult to make a Pirates of the Caribbean movie without Jack Sparrow, or at least without addressing his absence. Any movie, be it sequel or reboot, would be at least somewhat hamstrung by just trying to ignore his character, making it harder to move forward. That'd likely still happen to a degree even if they do bring him back and finish his story, but at least there'll be a clearer reason for doing so, and a clearer path for a new character to take the wheel. Jack's story - from Captain of the Black Pearl to losing his ship and all the way back again - can be brought to an end that gives full closure to the character and his crew. Pirates of the Caribbean 6 can give him a proper send-off, so that audiences know for sure this will be the last time they see Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean (something they tried, but didn't fully manage, with Dead Men Tell No Tales), perhaps even managing to lend some sense of pathos that the movies have largely shied away from.
Why Pirates of the Caribbean 6 Should Kill Off Captain Jack Sparrow
If looking to end Captain Jack Sparrow's story and write Depp out of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise for good, then the best and cleanest way of doing that would be to kill his character off. Pirates of the Caribbean 5 looked like being his swan-song, but in keeping his story open-ended, it also meant the possibility for Sparrow's return lingered on, which is something the franchise does eventually need to break free from. But killing him off wouldn't simply be to free the franchise from the character, but to give him a bigger, more final farewell, and to use that to directly help setup the future. If Sparrow dies in Pirates of the Caribbean 6, either at the very end or perhaps earlier, then it could give him a heroic send-off. It could introduce the next face of the franchise alongside them, and have Sparrow sacrifice his life for theirs.
Using death of a major, beloved figure is something Disney movies have used effectively in recent years, from Han Solo in Star Wars: The Force Awakens to Iron Man in Avengers: Endgame. While this would be too short of a gap to be a true legacy-quel, that kind of approach - where it ties up aspects of the past and sets up the future at the same time - could be of great benefit to Pirates of the Caribbean, allowing them to bid goodbye to Captain Jack Sparrow for good, without simply moving on and leaving fans wondering where he is.
There is a question of whether Disney would be prepared to kill off Sparrow - which may be why they'd rather simply ignore him and move on - given the character remains a prominent and popular figure at Disney theme parks. It's a fair argument, especially as this is more directly Disney, rather than Marvel or Lucasfilm, though the death of Iron Man nonetheless suggests they would be able to make it work. Johnny Depp and Captain Jack Sparrow are synonymous with Pirates of the Caribbean, and so it's hard to ignore them, but Pirates of the Caribbean 6 can and should use that legacy to its advantage.