Drink up me hearties, yo ho! The legacy of Pirates of the Caribbean is an enduring one. A passion project of Walt Disney himself — indeed, there exists audio footage of Disney excitedly describing the project to a potential visitor to Disneyland — the brand has evolved from a ride, to a series of rides, to a billion dollar movie franchise that even garnered Academy Award nominations and made Johnny Depp a mega star. Now, 59 years later, Pirates just got one of the biggest updates in its history.
Disneyland has officially reopened the New Orleans Square ride in its original park with a major new effect tucked into one of its most familiar scenes. Guests floating through the treasure-filled grotto segment of the ride will now see a pirate sitting atop a pile of cursed gold transform from a flesh-and-blood buccaneer into a skeleton right before their eyes, just as Barbossa’s crew does in the 2003 movie.
The new effect was developed by Walt Disney Imagineering Research & Development and uses next-generation Audio-Animatronics technology, of which they have long been pioneers. Rather than relying only on a traditional figure swap or lighting trick, the effect combines real-time front projection with a mechanical head to make the pirate’s transformation look much more detailed and expressive. There truly aren’t enough superlatives to describe the work they’ve done in Imagineering throughout the decades.
Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars
Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you’d actually make it out of alive.
💊The Matrix
🔥Mad Max
🌧️Blade Runner
🏜️Dune
🚀Star Wars
01
You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one.
02
In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires.
03
What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you’re honest about what you’re actually afraid of.
04
How do you deal with authority you don’t trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.
05
Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn’t just tactical — it’s physical, psychological, and very much about where you are.
06
Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are.
07
Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they’re actually made of.
08
What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.
Your Fate Has Been Calculated You’d Survive In…
Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.
The Resistance, Zion
The Matrix
You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You’re a systems thinker who can’t help but notice the seams in things.
You’re drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it.
You’d find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines’ worst nightmare.
You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it.
The Matrix built an airtight prison. You’d be the one probing the walls for the door.
The Wasteland
Mad Max
The wasteland doesn’t reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That’s you.
You don’t need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon.
You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you’re good at all three.
You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider.
In the wasteland, that distinction is everything.
Los Angeles, 2049
Blade Runner
You’d survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.
You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer.
In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional.
You’re not a hero. But you’re not lost, either.
In Blade Runner’s world, that distinction is everything.
Arrakis
Dune
Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.
Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they’re survival tools.
You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory.
Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You’d learn its logic and earn its respect.
In time, you wouldn’t just survive Arrakis — you’d begin to reshape it.
A Galaxy Far, Far Away
Star Wars
The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn’t have it any other way.
You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion.
You’d gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire’s grip can be broken.
You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn’t something you’re capable of.
In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference.
Will There Be a New ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ Movie?
“Jeff Nathanson (screenwriter of the last entry in 2017, Dead Men Tell No Tales) is working on a script. We have another one… We have two, and we don’t know who’s going to win the horse race at this point. But hopefully in the next month, I’ll have a script, and maybe Disney will want to make it,” Bruckheimer told Collider.
Last year, Bruckheimer revealed that he’d spoken with Depp about returning for a sixth film, offering new hope. “If he likes the way the part’s written, I think he would do it,” Bruckheimer said. “It’s all about what’s on the page, as we all know… We are still working on a screenplay. We want to make it. We just got to get the right screenplay. We haven’t quite gotten there yet, but we’re close.”
The new Pirates of the Caribbean is open in Disneyland. The franchise streams on Disney+.
