Australian actress Margot Robbie, best known for playing the Joker’s former henchwoman, Harley Quinn, will be starring in a future Pirates of the Caribbean movie, the Hollywood Reporter announced. The new movie (no title released yet) will be written by Christina Hodson, who wrote the script for Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn. Bumblebee, and Unforgettable. The Hollywood Reporter said this movie is to be “female-fronted” which implies Margot Robbie’s role will be closer to Anne Bonny and Mary Read than a damsel in distress who is captured by pirates.

One may safely assume that Hodson read Jane Yolen‘s Pirates in Petticoats growing up, as did most females of her generation. Hodson has also been hired to write the scripts for the new Flash movie (starring Hollywood bad boy Ezra Miller as the Flash and with Michael Keaton reprising his role as Batman) and the long overdue Batgirl solo movie.

Disney is planning two new pirates movies, both to be produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. this movie and another one written by Ted Elliott, who wrote the scripts for the original Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, Shrek, and Aladdin, and who will be collaborating with Craig Mazin, who wrote Chernobyl, RocketMan, and The Huntsman: Winter’s War.

Since the Golden Age of Piracy ranged from 1650 to 1730, Disney could make dozens of pirate movies without repeating themselves. Having purchased 20th Century Fox, Disney could also remake any of their old swashbuckler films.

The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise was a gamble that has paid off handsomely for The Walt Disney Company. earning them a respectable $1.4B in gross receipts over the first five films. The “Pirates” franchise first hit the seas in 2003 with “The Curse of the Black Pearl” and forged on with “Dead Man’s Chest” in 2006, “At World’s End” in 2007, “On Stranger Tides” in 2011 and “Dead Men Tell No Tales” in 2017.

Other than Margot Robbie, no other casting information for the next film is available. It also isn’t known whether this film with Robbie will be the sixth or the seventh film in the series, as there is also another script in development, a complete reboot of Pirates franchise from that comes from Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin and writer Ted Elliot, who penned the first four films of the franchise.

Despite the popularity of Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow, the pirate who succeeds in spite of himself in film after film, it has been confirmed by Disney that he will not be in the new film as a lead or supporting character. This doesn’t rule out a cameo, but it’s unlikely.

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