Why The Delay of ‘Pirates of the Caribbean 5' Worked to Its Advantage

(The post contains MAJOR SPOILERS for the Pirates of the Caribbean series)

One year ago today, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales was released in theaters. I have always loved the Pirates of the Caribbean series and I considered it to be my second favorite movie franchise, being topped only by The Chronicles of Narnia. Yet with the announcement of a fifth movie, I was surprised that I wasn’t as excited as I ought to have been. Whenever I would list off the movies I really wanted to see at the beginning of the year, Dead Men Tell No Tales was one I would usually forget. Part of this reason is probably because I’m not as big of a fan of On Stranger Tides and for the fifth film, I was not as impressed as I wanted to be of the teaser trailer or most of the subsequent trailers for that matter. However, this changed once I marathoned the series again, and it went on to be my favorite film of 2017. It was the sequel I had truly been waiting for. On Stranger Tides felt more of a this-is-what-happens-afterward film, while Dead Men Tell No Tales had a much better connection to the original trilogy.

The film received mixed to negative reviews, but the general consensus seems to be that it is better than the previous film. While it did not do very well domestically, it was a box-office success internationally, being the twelfth highest grossing film at the worldwide box office last year. But one thing I have never heard in the conversation is just how perfect the timing of the film was. There were developmental problems that delayed the release of the film. In the end, however, this may have been a blessing in disguise, giving the film a unique advantage.

On May 25, 2017, Twitter went crazy over the 40th anniversary of Star Wars, and that’s understandable. I personally didn’t feel as wowed about that, considering that while I wasn't alive back then and while I was around when the prequels were released, I was too young to notice. What upset me was that no one was paying attention to another major anniversary - the 10th anniversary of At World’s End. Now I was very excited not just because it’s my favorite of the franchise, but it was the most significant anniversary in the film’s history, yet it went by unnoticed. At the end of the credits, the post-credits scene was the reunion of Will with Elizabeth and their son ten years later, since he could only step on land once every ten years. That means that the anniversary in 2017 represented in real time when Will finally being able to step on land again.

The very next day after this anniversary, the fifth film in the franchise, but more of the true sequel to At World’s End, was released. At the end of the film, after Henry and Carina successfully broke the Trident and freed Will Turner from being cursed, he is reunited with Henry and able to step on land. Then, we see Elizabeth running to him. I personally have never shown so much excitement in a movie theater and remember it so clearly afterward than I did when I saw them together, and at all subsequent viewings I flat-out cried. (I had some similar experiences during Avengers: Infinity War recently, but I don’t remember any of them after the fact.) What made this reunion so special is that audiences got to experience the reunion in real-time. While in the context of the story, this reunion takes place 21 years later, audiences got to be reunited with Will and Elizabeth ten years later, as if the curse was on us as well.

It’s a rarity that timings of fiction and real life collide in this way, but it is a once-in-a-lifetime experience when it does. Sure, reuniting with Han, Luke and Leia was sort of real-time for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but thirty years later wasn’t an important element to the story, just when it happens to take place. Even Blade Runner 2049 was released thirty-five years after the original, while the film takes place thirty years later. The only other upcoming anniversary that I know of that’s significant to the timeline of the story of the film will be the fifteenth anniversary of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, since the Pevensie children in the course of the film spend fifteen years as kings and queens of Narnia. I wish more people were talking about the significance of Pirates 5's release because it’s rare that a film timeline coincides so precisely with a release date for its sequel.