Austin Butler Emerges as the Front-Runner to Helm the Pirates of the Caribbean Reboot
The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise may have found its new leading man: Elvis star Austin Butler. Disney has been looking for a way to revive the hit series with new stars for years now, and last week.
The DisInsider reported that Butler is the latest A-lister under consideration. The report is based on the outlet’s anonymous sources, and so neither Disney nor Butler have commented publicly on it so far. “I have heard for the last couple years that Disney has wanted to work with Butler for quite some time and while Hercules was on the table, I heard that Disney wants him [for] Pirates of the Caribbean,” DisInsider co-founder Skyler Shuler wrote. “Whether or not that happens is a completely different story.”
It’s worth noting that Disney has worked with Butler before. Butler made his first TV appearances in 2005 on Nickelodeon shows such as Unfabulous, Drake and Josh and Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide. He went under the Disney umbrella after that run, landing a two-episode guest starring role on the Disney Channel’s Hannah Montana, playing a love interest for Miley Stewart (Miley Cyrus) named Derek Hanson.
Butler later made guest-starring appearances on the Disney Channel shows Wizards of Waverly Place and Jonas, and along the way he befriended many of the network’s biggest child stars. In 2011, he co-starred in the High School Musical spinoff movie Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure. Around that time, Butler began his real-life relationship with fellow Disney Channel alum Vanessa Hudgens, so it’s clear that he has strong ties to the Disney ecosystem.
These days, Butler is a major movie star and he is on a roll, with acclaimed performances in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Elvis and Dune: Part Two. Critics have also raved about The Bikeriders, which premiered at film festivals last year but will make its debut in theaters next month for general audiences.
