User blog comment:Kakoolookiyam/Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides/@comment-3106883-20120213002826

As I understand from interviews and commentaries they've done, what the writers and Bruckheimer meant when they said "stand-alone" was that it wasn't part of a trilogy and that they were reducing the cast from an ensemble to just a few. People didn't have to know the backstory of Pirates in order to watch OST, while they did to watch AWE. What you are thinking of, when they change everything but the names of the main characters, is termed a "reboot" in the film and TV industry.