Cash Up Me Heartys! Yo Ho! The Pirates Franchise Expansion?
by Cameron Sampson
Hollywood once again mixes with anime as Johnny Depp will be lending his voice in Doraemon as a "Jack Sparrow" like character named Captain Johnny. He will appear on the "Doraemon One-Hour! Pirates Special!! The Great Decisive Battle of the Pirates: A South Seas Love Story," which will air on TV Asahi on Friday, June 29 at 7:00 p.m.
At this point, being that he has well benefited from banking on the Pirates’ franchise with his revenue contract, along with rights to the character, I wouldn’t be too surprised to start seeing comic or novel spinoffs of Sparrow in the near future. Of course, that all depends on just how much Disney wants to milk the financial success of Pirates. There are already graphic novels present, but they are strictly adapted from the trilogy’s scripts.
I say, if George Lucas can sicken most casual fans by drawing out a second trilogy, a library of video games, novels, comics and the like of the Star Wars franchise, then I don’t see how much damage could be caused by an expansion for Pirates. Popular opinion feels that the last two movies have already tainted the franchise somewhat and could never compare to Curse of the Black Pearl.
Should it go further, Jack Sparrow will make a far more entertaining character than to keep up with the hopeless romanticized storyline between Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann. My only other consideration for further character development would be Barbossa, but then again, his story could easily be tied into Sparrow’s as they both captain the same ship.
As of this point in writing, I have discovered that there actually was a Pirates of the Caribbean comic--a porn comic that is, done by Sinful Comics befittingly. I hear that it involves a ménage a trois with the two male leads, some octopus all over Elisabeth Swann. Of course, Disney jumped all over the slandering and sent out the ‘legalese’ (aka: take legal action against) to Sinful Comics. Sinful Comics promptly removed most of the images and all is once again well in both camps.
For now, fans can look forward to the Pirates MMORPG that is soon to be released, which should portray an expansive universe involving land and sea warfare. Some of the movie characters are slated to make cameo appearances through. Well, hopefully they can... There is no way that it can be as porous as that MMO from that other recent franchise known as The Matrix... right? Stay tuned in the coming months.