Pirates of the Caribbean Reboot in the Works With Deadpool Writers: Report

Disney is reportedly interested in rebooting its Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise. To that end, it has already met with writing duo Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, best known for writing the Ryan Reynolds-fronted 2016's Deadpool, and its 2018 sequel with Reynolds.

Reese and Wernick are in early talks to write the script for the Pirates of the Caribbean reboot, according to Deadline. Jerry Bruckheimer will remain as producer, it adds, though there's no word on whether lead pirate Johnny Depp or anyone else from the original cast will be back.

In addition to penning the two Deadpool movies for Twentieth Century Fox — which might soon be part of Disney with the $71.3-billion acquisition currently pending regulatory approval — they have co-written 2009's zombie comedy Zombieland, 2013's Dwayne Johnson-starrer G.I. Joe: Retaliation, and 2017's sci-fi horror Life.

The Deadpool franchise and Zombieland remains their best work critically and commercially, while the two other films were panned by critics. And though the G.I. Joe sequel crawled to $375 million at the worldwide box office, that wasn't enough to propel the series forward.

The duo is also behind Michael Bay-directed action film Six Underground for Netflix, also starring Reynolds, which is currently filming for a planned 2019 release. They have also co-written the sequel Zombieland Too, which is slated for October 2019 and begins production in January.

For Disney, Pirates of the Caribbean is a heavily lucrative franchise, having brought in $4.5 billion across five movies. And given the constant slide in critical reception since the first one in 2003, it makes sense that a reboot is in order.