My, what a year this is becoming. We haven't gone 20 days into 2016 without pretty big news today. According to the The Walt Disney Company's official website, The Walt Disney Studios announced new release dates for upcoming films from two of its major franchises: Star Wars and Pirates of the Caribbean. Originally scheduled for May 26, 2017, Star Wars: Episode VIII will now debut on December 15, 2017; this move presumably follows the extraordinary success of the latest film, Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Why is this affecting the Pirates franchise? Well, Disney also announced yet another change: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales will now take Star Wars' place and set sail on May 26, 2017, from its previously scheduled July 7, 2017. This shouldn't be too surprising as the previous installments, At World's End and On Stranger Tides, also debuted in late May. In addition, it was reported shortly afterwards that the new Sony/Marvel Spider-Man movie will take the July 7 date that Disney originally had Pirates hold for a year and half.
Disney also added, just as a reminder to us fans, Johnny Depp returns as Captain Jack Sparrow with Geoffrey Rush back on board as Hector Barbossa, Orlando Bloom resurfacing as Will Turner, and a terrifying new adversary, Captain Salazar, played by Javier Bardem, in the mix. Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg, Dead Men Tell No Tales is currently in post-production.
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Now to quote Captain Jack, if I may be so bold as to interject my professional opinion...
Like numerous others, I did go see Star Wars: The Force Awakens and enjoyed it, and I look forward to the newest and latest installments...even though I may wait a little longer. Also, as it seems we're in a Golden Age of sorts right now, it's safe for me to say I'm in league with the comic book geeks and get super excited for almost anything related to DC or Marvel properties, so I'm fairly excited for the new Spider-Man. But with all that being said, let's rejoice in the fact that we may very well see Pirates come out sooner than we were expecting. I'm certainly happy that we didn't get another report about delays, or worse. But then, we're still a year and some months away. To quote Jack again: One can only hope.
But enough of my blabbering, what are your thoughts on this news? Excited for Pirates? Disappointed? Or are you looking forward to one of the other franchises that just updated their slate? Please comment below! :)