While Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales may have been a strong showing for the franchise, it wasn’t necessarily that from a box office standpoint.

So while Disney decides the future of the franchise, the studio is making the moves on yet another long-gestating sequel by entering negotiations with one of the Pirates 5 directors. According to new reports, Joachim Rønning is in talks to direct Maleficent 2. More on the story below.

Deadline was the first to report on the news, but the article makes no mention of his Pirates 5 co-director Espen Sandberg. The two have come as a pair, and are best known for their 2012’s Oscar nominee Kon-Tiki, which actually helped them land the Pirates directing gig. Before that, they directed a handful of episodes of Marco Polo. So it’s not exactly clear why Rønning is the only one named in the article. But if the two have split, it wouldn’t be the first time that a creative duo has parted ways.

Maleficent 2 has been in the works since it became a box office success, but nothing has gotten off the ground since Linda Woolverton and Jez Butterworth were hired to write the screenplay. And that was back in 2015. So it has been slow going for the sequel.

Although I am not sure why – other than the box office factor – there is even going to be a sequel. Putting a spin on the Sleeping Beauty tale and turning it into a tragedy for the title villain was one thing. But it was a film that wasn’t running on all cylinders. In fact, the film received mixed to negative reviews, but still earned over $750 million worldwide.

Hopefully, Rønning can steer the franchise into a new direction. He and Sandberg gave new life to the Pirates franchise, so it’s easy to say that Disney expects the same for Maleficent 2.

Filming is expected to begin in early 2018.

[Source: Deadline]