LEGO offers an unsatisfying answer to the Black Pearl’s name change

The LEGO Group has addressed the curious absence of ‘Black Pearl’ in the name of 10365 Captain Jack Sparrow’s Pirate Ship, with an answer as vague as it is unsatisfying.

While there was plenty to soak up in the reveal of the newest LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean set, much of the conversation revolved around its weird name. Why isn’t it called the Black Pearl, the name of the ship in the movie (and also in the title of the first Pirates movie, The Curse of the Black Pearl)? No answers were forthcoming in the press release, nor from the LEGO Group when asked on the LEGO Ambassador Network.

The company has responded to one puzzled LEGO fan on Instagram, however, with the briefest and vaguest of explanations: “The name reflects an internal creative decision by the LEGO Group and The Walt Disney Company.” Well, that clears that up, then.

Meanwhile, Brick Fanatics took part in a roundtable interview with Mike Psiaki, designer of 10365 Captain Jack Sparrow’s Pirate Ship, who… also didn’t give us a lot to go on. “I'll give you the most boring answer, which is I can't say,” he said. “It’s an internal thing that unfortunately we're just not going to talk about. But as a designer, we are quite removed from the naming process of the product.

“As we're making something, we'll give suggestions at certain points in the process, but the naming, the packaging, all of these things actually happen quite a bit later, once the model development itself is done. But on this one, I actually heard the initial proposal: ‘We're going to call it Jack Sparrow’s Pirate Ship.’ And I said, ‘You have to put in Captain.’ They always forget the captain. You have to put that in there.

“So I take credit for it being called Captain Jack Sparrow's Pirate Ship, because I think people thought that was too funky of a name. The other made-up explanation I like to say is that this leaves the door open for me making Captain Hector Barbossa’s Pirate Ship as well.”

In the absence of a concrete answer so far, all we can do is speculate. Maybe the LEGO Group and Disney found the connotations of the term ‘black pearl’ too problematic for reasons that only the urban dictionary could shed light on? Maybe it’s all geared towards search engine optimisation, because all those Pirates of the Caribbean fans willing to drop £300 on a LEGO set won’t remember the name ‘Black Pearl’?

More likely it's a Disney-first decision, because the Black Pearl is also just called 'Jack's Ship' in Fortnite. But at the end of the day this only really concerns what’s on the box. There’s no sign strapped to the set itself saying ‘Captain Jack Sparrow’s Pirate Ship’, nor was there ever any ‘Black Pearl’ nameplate on the vessel in the movie, so once it’s built and on your shelf and the box has long been consigned to the recycling, you probably won’t even remember what the set was called.

Until you go to rewatch Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of Captain Jack Sparrow’s Pirate Ship on Disney+, that is.

10365 Captain Jack Sparrow’s Pirate Ship debuts September 12 for LEGO Insiders and September 15 for everyone else for £299.99 / $379.99 / €349.99. Anyone picking it up from September 12 to 18 will also receive 5009609 Captain Jack Sparrow’s Compass, while stocks last.

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