Pirates of the Caribbean’s Lack of Spinoffs Show Its Biggest Problem
The Pirates of the Caribbean series never stopped relying on Jack Sparrow, as evidenced by the lack of spinoffs from its otherwise ambitious fictional universe. While the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise has no clear future now, there was a time when the series could have spawned a cinematic universe as ambitious as the Star Wars Extended Universe or the MCU. However, the franchise squandered this opportunity, resulting in producer Jerry Bruckheimer having a seemingly worrying inability to articulate the future of thePirates of the Caribbean movies.
The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise began when 2003’sThe Curse of the Black Pearl proved to be a sleeper hit upon release. While the studio was optimistic about the theme park ride adaptation’s box-office potential, few industry insiders expected the original movie to take home over $700 million and earn its leading man an Oscar nomination. Overnight, Pirates of the Caribbean became a massively profitable brand, and the sequels proceeded to waste the impressive audience goodwill that the beloved first movie generated.
Related: Why No Pirates of the Caribbean Sequel Recaptured The Original’s Success
To be fair to the Pirates of the Caribbean series, the first few movies had style and ambition to spare. Although director Gore Verbinski’s earliest sequels did focus on Johnny Depp’s fan-favorite Jack Sparrow too much, 2006's Dead Man’s Chest and 2007's At World’s End couldn’t be faulted for their attempts to build an immersive fictional universe filled with complex lore. Where The Curse of the Black Pearl was a conventional slice of swashbuckling action, the remaining movies of the original Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy told a surprisingly dark, morally ambiguous, and
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