Disney is considering rebooting the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and has Deadpool writing duo Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick in talks to work on the project. With the Pirates of the Caribbean films having grossed around $4.5 billion worldwide across five movies now (last year's Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales took in nearly $800 million alone), it's never really been a question of whether the Mouse House will try to continue the swashbuckling franchise. Rather, the question has always been how will they attempt to do it.

The first installment in the Disney theme park ride-turned blockbuster series, The Curse of the Black Pearl, was a surprise critical and commercial success when it hit theaters in 2003, thanks in no small part to Johnny Depp's (ultimately, Oscar-nominated) performance as the rum-loving wayward pirate Jack Sparrow. Since then, however, most everyone seems to agree that both Depp's performance as Sparrow and the Pirates of the Caribbean movies in general have diminished further and further in quality with each passing installment. As such, Dead Men Tell No Tales was designed to serve as something of a soft reboot for the franchise, prior to its release in theaters.

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However, according to Deadline, Disney is now considering a complete overhaul of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, as opposed to making a more straightforward Pirates of the Caribbean 6 (as was reported to be the plan this past summer). The site further reports that Reese and Wernick are still in early talks to write the Pirates of the Caribbean reboot, following their meeting with the studio.

In addition to writing Deadpool and Deadpool 2 (both of which were massive hits with audiences and critics alike), Reese and Wernick are known for having written the popular 2009 zombie action-comedy Zombieland. The pair have also written the scripts for Zombieland 2 (which will finally reach theaters in 2019) and Michael Bay's currently-filming Netflix action flick 6 Underground, among other projects that are currently in the pipeline. The pair have further demonstrated a real knack for writing movies that blend witty comedy with impressive action sequences, making them a fitting match for the general tone and style of the Pirates of the Caribbean series.

It's worth noting, though, that Deadline's report is somewhat vague about whether this would be a complete reboot of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies so far or a partial continuation along the lines of, say, Jurassic World. Dead Men Tell No Tales already set the stage for the next installment to focus more on a new generation of heroes (namely, Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann's son Henry Turner and Captain Barbossa's daughter Carina Smyth), so it's possible this new film will simply pick up those threads and ignore much of the rest of the pre-established Pirates mythology. Whether or not that would include Jack Sparrow is likewise up in the air for the time being.

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We will bring you more details on the Pirates of the Caribbean reboot as they become available.

Source: Deadline