Avatar's CGI Success Proves Pirates of the Caribbean Reboot Is Necessary

The success of the "Avatar" series is largely due to its technical achievements, which justified the reboot of Pirates of the Caribbean.

The continued success of CGI franchises like Avatar justified the need for a Pirates of the Caribbean reboot. The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise has been stagnant since the release of "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales" in 2017. However, the franchise has been on hold despite multiple failed attempts at reboots and sequels since Gore Verbinski's original Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End trilogy Ended in 2007.

Both the fourth film, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, and the aforementioned fifth film were well received by fans and critics alike. This led to the cancellation of the planned Margot Robbie spin-off, and development of a sixth film in limbo. However, the success of a CGI-centric film franchise like Avatar is reason enough to reboot Pirates of the Caribbean, as long as it's similar to Verbinski's original trilogy.

A Pirates Of The Caribbean Reboot Could Rival Avatar’s CGI

One of the more acclaimed elements of Verbinski's original trilogy, particularly Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and At World's End, was the brilliant CGI work on display. An entirely CGI creation by Davy Jones and his team, via Motion capture performance. Considering Dead Man's Chest and At World's End, released in 2006 and 2007, respectively, the CGI work is masterful. However, just two years later, James Cameron surpassed it with Avatar.

With Avatar: Way of Water due in 2022, the continued success of the CGI-heavy franchise is evident. If the Pirates of the Caribbean reboot happens sometime in the 2020s, creatures similar to Davy Jones and his crew could rival those in Cameron's universe. While the Avatar franchise remains undefeated for its CGI environments created from scratch, the CGI work for motion-captured creatures rivals it.

Why Any Pirates Reboot Would Need To Emulate The Original Trilogy

However, this will only be the case if any reboot of Pirates of the Caribbean more closely mimics Verbinski's original trilogy. While the fourth and fifth films in the series had their fair share of impressive CGI, they paid less attention to the intricate monster designs of Verbinski's second and third films. As such, any Pirates of the Caribbean reboot would have to be more similar to the original trilogy in its character and creature designs. This would allow the film to use more modern CGI and rival the franchise's character designs Like Avatar.

Also, on a simpler level, the original Pirates trilogy was better made than the films that followed. In addition to the better implementation of CGI in the original three films, Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio's work better captures the spirit of the golden age of piracy, which may have got Verbins Key's unique vision, as the pair also wrote a fourth film, which turned out to be less positive. Since Verbinski has already done some story work on films like Rango and A Cure For Wellness, he could return as a screenwriter for a new film that better captures the spirit of the original trilogy.

The Pirates Reboot Should Be A Sequel, Not A New Story

So, this all means that any reboot of Pirates of the Caribbean should be a sequel to an existing film, not a new story. However, this should be done as a soft reboot to bring the franchise back to life again. Technically, Pirates of the Caribbean 6 has been in development since 2017, and Disney should opt for a soft reboot of the franchise and reintroduce characters from the original trilogy. After all, the best parts of 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales' are Elizabeth Swan, Will Turner and Jack Sparrow is back on screen for the first time since 2007.

"We're still working on it" - producer Jerry Bruckheimer discusses Johnny Depp's potential return to "Pirates of the Caribbean" pic.twitter.com/GrIre7W4bm— AP Entertainment (@APEntertainment) December 13, 2022

This excitement continued until the end credits of the fifth film teased that Davy Jones would somehow return. A soft reboot is possible while still building on this post-credits scene. A potential reboot could happen years later, and seeing Davy Jones have some kind of dominion over the seas, Jack Sparrow has to bring Elizabeth and Will back to Pirates 6 to help him defeat their old foes. While Johnny Depp and Disney have some issues with the former's legal battle with Amber Heard, as Jerry Bruckheimer says, he could still return. All of which goes to show why a Pirates of the Caribbean reboot is needed and could benefit greatly from modern filmmaking.