Original Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy stars Will Turner and Elizabeth Swan should return for the upcoming sixth movie in the franchise to smooth things over since the series has been through a major creative reshuffle and a lengthy absence from multiplexes. When Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl proved a huge hit upon release in summer 2003, many film fans were surprised. After all, only eight years earlier, director Renny Harlin’s infamously expensive flop Cutthroat Island had all but doomed the swashbuckling action sub-genre for the foreseeable future.
Many critics laid the success of the movie at the feet of Johnny Depp’s unforgettable turn as Captain Jack Sparrow, and for good reason. Despite terrifying Disney executives by playing the character as a camp dandy, Depp won over mainstream audiences and his character soon proved the breakout star of the Pirates of the Caribbean series, being promoted to leading man status by the arrival of the fourth and fifth outings. However, there was more to the original movie’s success than the presence of Depp.
While Depp’s Sparrow may have been central to the outsized acclaim of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, the able support he received from a game cast elevated the actor’s turn and ensured that the movie had more than one subplot worth following. Fresh off Lord of the Rings, Orlando Bloom beat out competition from the likes of Tobey Maguire and Heath Ledger to play Will Turner, and the actor brought a fresh-faced naiveté to the role that worked well against Depp’s amoral antics. Meanwhile, Kiera Knightley excelled as lady-turned-pirate Elizabeth Swan, bouncing between damsel-in-distress and action heroine in a funny, impressive turn that was agreeably over-the-top, but never absurd or without stakes. Since those early days, much ink has been spilled over Disney’s decision to let Johnny Depp go from the starring role of the franchise. However, many fans forget that the critical decline of the series actually coincided with the absence of his original trilogy co-stars, and their return could well elevate a sixth Pirates of the Caribbean movie.
Will & Elizabeth Made Jack Sparrow A Star
Johnny Depp’s lovable rogue was the breakout star of The Curse of the Black Pearl, but the actor only had an opportunity to surprise audiences because he was stealing scenes from capable, engaging co-stars. As the ostensible leads of the first film, Bloom and Knightley's hero and heroine were charming and believable, and the importance of their “straight man to Sparrow’s comic” dynamic was made obvious by the fourth and fifth film’s critical decline. In On Stranger Tides, Sparrow was tied to a dead-weight supporting star in the form of Sam Claflin’s Philip, a missionary character who even the talented actor couldn’t make interesting or memorable, and the sequel suffered badly without an interesting central story for Jack to play off.
The fifth film, 2017’s Dead Men Tell No Tales, offered Carina, Kaya Scodelario’s unlikely daughter of Captain Barbossa, and the movie once again failed to find the balance between Jack’s theatrics and his co-star’s story. In contrast, Will and Elizabeth’s (surprisingly tragic, for a summer blockbuster) three-movie romantic arc is a compelling love story in its own right and one that Knightley and Bloom were able to sell so well that even Depp couldn’t pull focus from their most emotionally charged moments. Without such an engaging central duo to support their stories, the sequels floundered and failed to find the right balance between centering Jack and focusing on his shipmates.
Their Dead Men Tell No Tales Cameos Were A Letdown
A lot went wrong with Dead Men Tell No Tales, and the brief appearances by Knightley and Bloom were far from the sequel’s biggest flaws. That said, while it was admittedly nice to see that Will survived his time at sea and he and Elizabeth were reunited, other than that relief, everything else about Turner and Swan’s brief cameos in the fifth film was a disappointing tease. Their storyline received just enough new information to be interesting (Davy Jones is still alive? And still after them? Why didn’t he try to kill Will while he was at sea for ten years?), only for the sequel to end before they could even be properly reunited with Jack. Each of the Pirates of the Caribbean sequels has its unique issues, but this long-promised return being reduced to a momentary cameo was a particularly dispiriting one for fans of the franchise who had been awaiting the moment.
The POTC Franchise Needs A Link To The Original Movies
Without Jack Sparrow, viewers have little reason to believe that the new Pirates of the Caribbean reboot will be anything like the original movies. Already, it has been clarified that the sequel will be a reboot rather than a spinoff, meaning the creators are adding even more distance between the original Pirates of the Caribbean movies and their followup (perhaps due to mounting fan pressure to reinstate Depp in the series). Bringing back characters who were central not only to the original movies but specifically to the better-reviewed original Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, gives the sixth outing credibility that it needs in Depp’s absence. This still may not be enough for die-hard fans, but without the face of the franchise present anymore, the series needs to do all it can to bring back fan interest.
In terms of lore, Elizabeth and Will are far from the only supporting characters whose stories could do with being expanded on in an installment of the series. The tragic love story between Davy Jones and Calypso remains unfinished now that viewers know Jones is still alive, and he’s not the only early bad guy whose motives remain compelling. Original trilogy villain Cutler Beckett, for example, was a minor Pirates of the Caribbean player whose storyline had plenty of untapped potential. But bringing back casual viewers would require more recognizable faces that fans recall and love, meaning Will Turner and Elizabeth Swan are the most obvious options that the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise has at hand.