Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin to develop Pirates of the Caribbean reboot

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Yo ho, yo ho, here we go again. Disney's PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN franchise has certainly been profitable for the studio, grossing over $4.5 billion worldwide over the course of five films, but after the last film, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES, wound up under-performing compared to the previous installments, Disney began exploring the possibilities of rebooting the franchise.

THR has now reported that Disney have tasked Craig Mazin, creator and writer of HBO's excellent Chernobyl mini-series, with developing a story for the next PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN adventure. Franchise veteran Ted Elliot is also onboard to help guide the story which is being designed to "propel fresh wind" into the franchise. While Mazin is known for his somber dramatic work on Chernobyl these days, his prior work is much more light-hearted and includes THE HANGOVER PART II, THE HANGOVER PART III, IDENTITY THIEF, and THE HUNTSMAN: WINTER'S WAR. The PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN reboot is still in the early stages as Mazin and Elliott come up with a story and new direction, but this isn't the first time the studio has attempted to reboot the franchise.

Last October, Disney reached out to Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, writers of the DEADPOOL films, to pen the script for the reboot. Disney's film production chief Sean Bailey had been quite excited about bringing Reese and Wernick onboard, saying that they were going to "make Pirates punk rock again" and give the franchise a much-needed "kick in the pants." However, Rhett and Wernick departed the project earlier this year. As a fan of the franchise, although I can admit that the last few sequels didn't exactly thrill me, I'm certainly down for the franchise to return if they can recapture the thrills and magic which PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN once had.