After critical hits with Chernobyl and The Last of Us, everyone is wondering what’s next for showrunner Craig Mazin. Though it’s obvious he’s going to be coming back to TLOU again for a second season, he’s confirmed he’s started work on another Disney IP.
Talking to the LA Times, Mazin confirms that he’s worked on a treatment for a reboot of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise for Disney, but development is halted as the strikes are still ongoing. He says, “We pitched it and thought there’s no way they’re buying it, it’s too weird… And they did! And then he wrote a fantastic script and the strike happened and everyone’s waiting around.”
Despite the success of the Pirates films in the theaters, they have been in a kind of weird place ever since the original trilogy ended with World’s End. Some say that they have become over-reliant on the character of Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) throughout the course of the films; and with Depp’s recent public dispute with ex-wife Amber Heard, Disney (and a bunch of other studios) probably don’t want him to be around their billion-dollar franchises for a good long while.
It’s unclear what direction POTC wants to move forward with. Last December, producer Jerry Bruckheimer confirmed there were two Pirates films in the works, one starring Barbie actress Margot Robbie. It’s very likely that the project with Mazin is the second one that Bruckheimer mentioned; but as of now, we don’t have any further details.
A next Pirates of the Caribbean film hasn’t been announced, but you check out The Last of Us and Chernobyl now streaming on Max.
