Margot Robbie Confirms That Disney Has Canceled Her Highly-Anticipated Reboot
Margot Robbie says her female-led Pirates of the Caribbean project has been abandoned by Disney.
Margot Robbie’s anticipated, female-led Pirates of the Caribbean reboot film is no longer moving forward. According to an interview in Vanity Fair, Margot Robbie says that Disney has essentially canceled her Pirates project, though she put it in the kind of non-committal language that implies it wasn’t so much shut down as put aside. In recent months, there have been more and more signs that Disney is looking to bring the popular Pirates franchise out of mothballs, but it does not seem the Barbie actress will be involved.
According to our previous reports, Margot Robbie was developing a Pirates of the Caribbean project all the way back in 2020, which was apparently being written by Birds of Prey screenwriter Christina Hodson. Per Vanity Fair, Margot Robbie says her Pirates movie would “have more of a female-led—not totally female-led, but just a different kind of story—which we thought would’ve been really cool… But I guess they don’t want to do it.” On its surface, this is somewhat surprising, as Disney seems eager to revive the Pirates franchise and nabbing one of the biggest stars in the world to do so would be a get.
However, it can be speculated that recent reports that Margot Robbie is increasingly being given creative freedom and control over at Disney rival DC Studios since the ascendence of Robbie’s old friend James Gunn might have changed things. Margot Robbie is already deeply associated with the DC slate of comic book adaptations, with her version of Harley Quinn being one of the most consistently popular and acclaimed characters; if she is going to lean even more into that, Disney might not want to contract a star it has to share.
On the other hand, the cancelation of Margot Robbie’s Pirates of the Caribbean movie could have been for entirely different reasons. Notably, Disney has been increasingly leaning on the Disney+ streaming platforms for new franchise content; for example, Star Wars has not had a theatrical release since 2019, but multiple shows set in a Galaxy Far, Far Away have been released or are in production.
It is entirely possible that Margot Robbie’s project was put aside in favor of a streaming series that could test audience interest in a Pirates reboot without the expense and public scrutiny of a theatrical release.
We recently reported that Teen Wolf and Maze Runner star Dylan O’Brien is in contention to star in a Disney+ Pirates of the Caribbean show, while Black Adam star Dwayne Johnson (a favorite of Disney’s) has also been rumored as a candidate to take over the franchise. Of course, there is always the possibility that original series star Johnny Depp might be persuaded to come back as Captain Jack Sparrow, though his only confirmed future film role is as a different guy in a big weird hat.
At least for now, it seems that Margot Robbie’s Pirates project is dead in the water. Fortunately, she has the period drama Babylon, the oddball comedy Barbie, and Wes Anderson’s science fiction film Asteroid City ahead of her, so she will probably be fine.
