Captain Jack Sparrow, accompanied by a local guide (who happens to be doubling as his inamorata of the moment), is probing the ruins on the legendary Skull Island for treasure. But they are about to have some unwelcome company join them, and it’s the kind of company that prefers fresh and bloody meat to a bottle of rum.
In all honesty, even though it’s only the very first Pirates of the Caribbean movie that I would consider all that good, I must admit I’d love to see the next film in the franchise have the premise illustrated here. Skull-themed islands are already ubiquitous in pirate-themed media, and if you were to cross that over with the alternate trope of the “skull island” as a lost world with dinosaurs and ancient ruins, then you’d have an adventure worthy of Captain Jack and his crew.
I don’t necessarily think it likely that such a film will ever come to fruition, though. As hard as it to imagine anyone replacing Johnny Depp as Sparrow, he has grown a bit old for the role of the daring swashbuckler even if we disregard how divisive a figure he has became thanks to the whole drama with his ex-wife (which I haven’t really followed and therefore can’t give you an informed verdict on). Still, I can see him voice-acting his character for an animated film, and we all know how Disney does better with animation than live action on average anyway.
If you’re wondering which interpretation of Skull Island I’m going for here, it’s my own, albeit inspired most by the version in Peter Jackson’s 2005 King Kong remake.
