Has the popularity of Pirates passed?

[Seamus Ex Machina]

I'm not bad, Jacky.....Occasionally misunderstood....usually inebriated... always frisky....

....nevermind...

[Welsh Wench]

*raises hand*

I sure as hell can vouch for that!

OK, I write for Pirates Magazine. And I can truthfully say the pirate community has never been in a healthier interest venue as it is now.

[Captain Jack Wolfe]

And as a fellow writer for that esteemed publication, I have to concur.  Even here in the Upper Midwest, we have a healthy and thriving population of pirates.  Just drop by MNRF and see for yourself!

[maelstrom0370]

LOL! You guys are a riot! 
I think pirates, much like gunslingers, bikers and, too an extent, gangsters will always be popular. That popularity may, occasionally, wax and wane, but they're all romanticized "Bad Boys" and that never goes out of style.

[Seamus Ex Machina]

I was just watching a documentary about the annual pilgrimage to Sturgis, SD.   It is Mecca for the biker crowd...I was struck (not for the first time, lookit my nose) how bikers and pirates have a lot in common.  There was even a article in one of the mags to that effect.   Same bunch, different garb.....

[groomporter]

Knightley opted out and Bloom won't be asked back, is more the case.  PotC 4 is in the Disney "pipeline"-- no script, no contracts, no schedule.  Depp is the only one committed so far.  So we have a while to wait.

Even if they could find a way to replace Bloom's character as captain of the "Dutchman" I suspect a fourth movie with Knightly and Bloom would be a poor shadow of the first three unless they can find an exceptional plot. The problem is how to continue Capt. Jack's legend separate from Elizabeth and William.

The East India Company has been beaten, the main thing I can see is to play out the potential conflict with the remaining pirate lords for dominance of the Brotherhood, and maybe competing for support from Calypso, or some other watery supernatural being. But unless it's exceptionally written, it sounds more like a potential "B" TV series (ala Xena) rather than a good movie.

[groomporter]

Wow, there were six other replies just while I was writing that

[Captain Jack Wolfe]

There's always the possibility of having Jack and Barbossa in a race for the Fountain of Youth, since both are intimately aware of their own mortality now.

But that is complete conjecture on my part.  What good is immortality anyway?  You get to watch everything and everyone you care about wither and die, again and again.  Doesn't sound like fun to me.  Sounds lonely.

[groomporter]

And as a fellow writer for that esteemed publication, I have to concur.  Even here in the Upper Midwest, we have a healthy and thriving population of pirates.  Just drop by MNRF and see for yourself!

The question is, has it reached a peak, and what will be the next renfair fad?

[Welsh Wench]

The Spring 2007 issue of Pirates Magazine has an article, 'Brothers in Rebellion: Why Bikers Love Pirates'

The article was written by Dave Nichols, the editor of Easy Rider and V-8 Twin.

Coincidently, he happens to be our editor too.

[Welsh Wench]

As long as there are a new generation of kids, there will be interest in pirates.

I do think that a POTC can work if they do a retro.
Maybe how Barbossa and Jack met...or how Jack became the way he is.

Sure, we can all blame it on Keith Richards.....

[Seamus Ex Machina]

And as a fellow writer for that esteemed publication, I have to concur.  Even here in the Upper Midwest, we have a healthy and thriving population of pirates.  Just drop by MNRF and see for yourself!

The question is, has it reached a peak, and what will be the next renfair fad?

Dancing sheep.  Trust me....

[Captain Jack Wolfe]

Dancing sheep.  Trust me....

The Mutton Rouge?

[Seamus Ex Machina]

"Lamb Chop...Uncut..."

[DeadBishop]

I was just watching a documentary about the annual pilgrimage to Sturgis, ND.   It is Mecca for the biker crowd...I was struck (not for the first time, lookit my nose) how bikers and pirates have a lot in common.  There was even a article in one of the mags to that effect.   Same bunch, different garb.....

Pssst....Sturgis is in South Dakota.  If you end up in North Dakota on your hog, all you'll get is some some tatertot hotdish and a bunch of "dontchaknows"...  

But yeah, that's where I spent the first 19 years of my life.  Maybe that's why being a pirate at fest comes so naturally...