Man – sorry, men – overboard! While there was talk in October last year that Disney was looking to chart a new (and potentially Johnny Depp-free) course for the future of the Pirates Of The Caribbean franchise, with Deadpool duo Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese hired to give the idea, as Disney production chief Sean Bailey put it, a "kick in the pants". It's looking more like a punch to the groin as Wernick and Reese have left the film.
According to Deadline's sources, the pair is no longer at work on the sixth film, which the Mouse House had been hoping would re-invigorate a franchise that has started to take on serious water (even as it stayed mostly afloat at the box office), likely doing away with Depp's Jack Sparrow and finding calmer waters. And that is officially the end of the nautical puns.
The exact next move is unclear, though the company is reportedly considering either finding replacement writers or pushing the whole thing far out from land and scuttling it so it sinks to the depths. Okay, now we're done with the sea stuff.
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