I don’t want a recast Jack Sparrow. I don’t even necessarily want a female lead. I want Disney to really, really switch things up… or not bother at all.

There are rumors that Disney is planning to reboot Pirates of the Caribbean, a franchise whose last film came out a year ago, and whose first film came out less than 20 years ago. It’s the ultimate overuse of the reboot fever that has been taking over the film industry — and Disney in particular.

It’s no secret that I’m perpetually obsessed with Pirates of the Caribbean, but also perpetually disappointed with the direction the films have taken. So theorizing about a possible reboot, as frustrating as it is, is exactly what I’m interested in doing.

I don’t want Disney to reboot Pirates; not because I don’t believe in the potential of the series, but because Disney’s interest in Pirates of the Caribbean’s story has proven to be completely at odds with what made us like the story in the first place.

And without Jack Sparrow at the center of whatever new tale they come up with, the future looks very, very bleak. I’m not saying that no franchise can survive when you remove Johnny Depp: the abuse allegations and increasingly erratic behavior of the star make this decision come as no surprise. Disney doesn’t want to put its eggs in this problematic basket (a stance I feel Warner Bros. should have gone with, also, but I digress), and it’s also natural that it would want to bring new blood into the mix to appeal to a new audience.

But a reboot? Really?

Pirates of the Caribbean has value to Disney because it’s an extremely popular ride in their parks, and giving it a movie fandom offers it a built-in audience and money everywhere. That’s understandable. The universe also has a massive amount of potential, with its mix of fantasy and history, and all the memorable action and costume moments pirates have to offer.

Their plan to reboot the franchise the Star Wars way, with Brenton Thwaites and Kaya Scodelario at its center, went terribly awry when fans and critics alike found it a disappointment. So they need to do something completely different: something that will draw the audience in a way Dead Men Tell No Tales did not… and without Jack Sparrow.

Is the reboot going to have the same tone as the originals, with some spooky scenes and action, but an ultimately family-friendly experience? Or will it be for kids, to draw in a younger audience? Or will it be aimed at an adult audience, Fantastic Beasts-style?

The problem with Pirates is that if you want a more watered-down version of the universe, you get terrible movies — as we saw with the last two films. The mythology cannot be expanded in a sloppy way anymore, throwing magical pirates and increasingly more powerful artefacts into the fray at will. You also can’t rely on a purely character-driven story anymore: as much as people love Jack Sparrow, he’s just not enough to fill theaters.

In fact, Pirates’ mistake might have been the exact thing that people lauded the most in the first place. They relied too heavily on Jack’s character to draw audiences, and got sloppy with the story that surrounded him. They centered the story on him, when his value was mostly in his mystery. And you just can’t have an entire franchise depend on a single character. The universe has to be rich and deep.

“But what about a female lead?” people are asking (meaning a lead that fits into the Jack Sparrow box, not the Elizabeth Swann box). “That would be revolutionary!”

That’s true. But it wouldn’t be enough. Rey alone couldn’t have made the Star Wars reboot successful, no matter how awesome she is. And we certainly don’t want a female version of Jack Sparrow, with whom Disney could make all the same mistakes they made with the original film series. A female lead would be fun and new… but like any character, she needs a story that is just as revolutionary as she is: a backdrop that is more thoughtful and careful than any before her.

The only way out of this predicament is to go deeper. If Disney wants to do this, it has to dig deeper than ever before when creating a storyline that will do this franchise’s potential justice… and potentially take a new step in the way it depicts the Caribbean in Pirates’ historical moments.

There are numerous accounts of fascinating pirates — many female! — from around this period in history, and epic stories of heroism in black and Native American communities from that time that have gone unexplored. What At World’s End hinted at with the pirates from around the world, the East India Trading Company and Jack’s past rescuing slaves is a much more interesting story than two European kids leaving comfortable lives to traipse around the ocean.

(Not dismissing the value of Elizabeth and Will in the original trilogy. But there are so many more interesting characters… remember Tia Dalma?)

And that doesn’t necessarily have to be a story for adults; it can be family-friendly and still stay deep. But it takes some really good writing.

That being said, rebooting this modern franchise so soon is probably a terrible idea. The solution to an increasingly unpopular movie series tends to be “more action,” “more epic storylines,” “crazier magic” and “more stars!”… and the reason Pirates is failing is that it focused more on that, and not enough on the things that mattered.

If Disney manages to pull this off, I’m going to be very surprised. But they’ll gain my respect if they try, like few studios do, to actually create something brand new and meaningful from the dramatic history of the Caribbean in the era of pirates.