'Pirates of the Caribbean' Sails Away from Disney, Anchors at Universal Studios

Many Pirates of the Caribbean fans who have thought that Disney and only Disney have had their hands on the swashbuckling $4.5 billion franchise will be stunned to learn that Universal, Disney’s competition, played a much larger role in the film’s development than they would have thought.

The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise is one of the rare occasions in which Disney created an attraction with an original storyline that became so popular that the House of Mouse decided to make a movie based on it. The other successful franchise to have been developed by The Walt Disney Company in the same way.

The Haunted Mansion (2003) was a comedic take that starred Eddie Murphy as a workaholic realtor who visits a creepy mansion. He ventures there with his family and encounters a cast of wacky ghosts played by actors like Terence Stamp, Nathaniel Parker, and Marsha Thomason. This film incidentally was filmed at the same time as Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, which debuted in 2003 as well.

Then, The Haunted Mansion (2023) came out last year. This more recent film is a horror-comedy starring Rosario Dawson, LaKeith Stanfield, Owen Wilson, and Tiffany Haddish. It follows a single mom and her son who move into a haunted house and enlist a motley crew to deal with the resident ghosts.

Disney has also recently announced that Space Mountain would be getting its own movie as well, so as we can see, Disney has undoubtedly found a financial revenue source by not only turning movies into rides, as we can see with many of the new Disney parks attractions that are based on movies, but turning rides into movies, and expanding the lore within the theme parks to the silver screen.

Pirates of the Caribbean as a franchise has been divulged in controversy as of late, with fans boycotting any future developments due to the loss of Johnny Depp.

Depp’s position in Hollywood, while recently questioned by many due to this abuse case with ex-wife Amber Heard, has certainly been earned.

He delivered a heartfelt performance as the misunderstood Edward Scissorhands (1990) in Tim Burton’s classic. Depp dives into another fantastical world as the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland (2010). He brings his eccentricities to life as Willy Wonka in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), another collaboration with Tim Burton. Depp’s portrayal of a struggling writer in Finding Neverland (2004) adds a heartwarming touch to this tale inspired by Peter Pan’s creator. And those films are just a scratch on his resume.

As many fans of the franchise know, Disney has decided to remove Johnny Depp from all future Pirates of the Caribbean films, despite him being the lead. Disney mistakenly made this choice before any verdict was made in order to distance themselves from Depp as he was in dark waters with the abuse accusations being made by his ex-wife Amber Heard.

Now, we know that if Disney were to have held loyalty until the verdict was called, they would still have their lead actor, a key fan base, and a future for the franchise since he was not found to be guilty.

There have been rumors that Depp would return to the franchise despite him saying he would not come back for the sixth film, even for $300,000,000. At one point, a female version of the film was being contemplated, which would have placed Barbie (2023) star Margot Robbie as the new “Jack Sparrow”, but now, that movie is off the table.