The future of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise has been up in the air for a while now. The most recent installment, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, managed to gross nearly $800 million worldwide back in 2017, but it was also the weakest chapter of the series as far as domestic box office goes, making only $172.6 million from its full run. At this stage, we can't say for certain what's going to happen, but apparently actor Lee Arenberg has been hearing some rumblings behind the scenes.
Lee Arenberg played the goofy pirate Pintel in the original Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, and while that may seem to imply that he's been disconnected from the franchise for the last 13 years, that's evidently not the case. The actor was recently interviewed on the YouTube channel Kendall Talks TV, and when the subject of a potential Pirates of the Caribbean 6 came up Arenberg noted that there has been some buzz surrounding the project:
They're definitely talking about it, as far as I know.
While it's possible that things are quietly moving forward with Pirates of the Caribbean 6, most of the recent reports surrounding the brand have suggested that Disney may choose to go the reboot route with the franchise instead of producing another sequel. The chatter started in October 2018 when it was revealed that Deadpool writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick were having discussions about taking on a revamped take, but then the duo apparently stepped away from that business in February 2019.
More recently, as in back in October 2019, Disney tapped a new pair of writers to try and move the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise forward, namely Ted Elliot and Craig Mazin. Elliot has a long history with the movies, as he co-wrote the script for the original trilogy, while Mazin is best known now for creating the critically-acclaimed HBO limited series Chernobyl.
We can't say for certain what the next steps are going to be, but for what it's worth Lee Arenberg would definitely be interested in reprising his fan-favorite supporting role. Asked about potentially returning to the part, Arenberg said,
I mean yeah, of course, obviously. But they've already done two without us [laughs]. I love it, though, I love that part. But it’s not up to me.
At this stage in the game, anything is really possible. Maybe the Pirates of the Caribbean reboot won't be so much a reboot as it is a spin-off, and will feature a new protagonist while also bringing back key side characters like Pintel (though that would certainly mean that the film would have to bring back Mackenzie Crook as Ragetti as well).
As always, we'll keep you posted here on CinemaBlend about all of the latest updates regarding the future of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, and the possibility of Pirates of the Caribbean 6, so stay tuned!
