Yo ho, yo ho, the pirates’ life is not for Margot Robbie. The Oscar-nominated actress, who has skyrocketed to international fame in the last decade, was previously attached to star in a female-led spin-off of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise at Disney, but now says the film is dead in the water. Robbie‘s untitled Pirates project was revealed in June of 2020, with her Birds of Prey creative partner Christina Hodson set to write the script. The film was still in early development as of May, when longtime producer Jerry Bruckheimer mentioned during an interview that he and Disney had been in touch with Robbie about the film’s status. At the time, Bruckheimer hinted that the future of the movie was not set in stone, and unfortunately, it looks like it has since been made to walk to the plank.
Robbie made the world savvy to her project becoming shark bait during a recent conversation with Vanity Fair, in which she discussed her impressive career. When asked about the potential of Pirates as her next adventure, she made the following statement:
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.
Margot Robbie
The film would have been the sixth installment in the Pirates franchise, and the first without Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow. Bruckheimer is currently at work on a separate Pirates reboot, with Chernobyl and The Last of Us showrunner Craig Mazin writing a script alongside franchise veteran Ted Elliot. The fate of this movie, also without Depp, remains uncertain. Until more is known, fans of the Pirates movies should remain hopeful. After all, dead movies tell no tales.
Source: Vanity Fair, Variety
