The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise featured an intriguing character in Naomi Harris’ Tia Dalma, but who was the sorceress, what were her powers, and how powerful was she? Despite her disappearing at the end of the first trilogy, she was easily one of the most formidable characters in the entire franchise.
Unfortunately for fans of the series that started with Gore Verbinski's 2003 original, after the first three films concluded the original Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy’s surprisingly sad story, the filmmakers opted to focus on Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow and start adding in new villains instead of revisiting the cast of the first three movies. As a result, viewers never got a clear look at Naomi Harris’ Tia Dalma, a fascinating figure first seen in the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie and given a bigger role in the climax of the third film in the franchise, At World’s End.
Introduced late in the lengthy runtime of 2006’s first Pirates of the Caribbean sequel Dead Man’s Chest, Tia Dalma is important in the plot and mythology of the franchise but never gets much screen time explaining her powers and backstory. She’s initially introduced after the convoluted action of Dead Man’s Chest concludes with Jack’s death at the hands of Davy Jones’ leviathan the Kraken. Elizabeth decides to save Jack (despite being responsible for his death), leading Will Turner and the crew of the Black Pearl to the swampy hideout of Tia Dalma. Here, viewers are introduced to this pivotal figure in the series as she acts as a deus ex machina, bringing not one but two pivotal characters back from the dead in short order.
Who Is Tia Dalma?
A sorceress and Hoodoo practitioner, Tia Dalma is only glimpsed in Dead Man’s Chest as a creepy but oddly alluring villainess whose lair is filled with shrunken heads, assorted spooky detritus, and all sorts of warnings that she's not a character to be trifled with. At first, it seems as if she could be trapping the Black Pearl’s crew during their foreboding time in her hideout, but soon it becomes clear that the secret she’s hiding isn't a trap but rather a tactical move which will ultimately benefit Jack Sparrow's shipmates. In the closing moments of the flawed, complicated Pirates of the Caribbean sequel Dead Man’s Chest, the viewer discovers that Tia Dalma has brought back the villain of The Curse of the Black Pearl, Captain Barbossa, from the dead. Audiences now knew she was capable of reincarnation and as such could help bring back Jack, but why she revived Barbossa remained unexplained for now. Soon, though, Tia Dalma would go on to play a much bigger role in the series once the extent of her plans was revealed.
Tia Dalma Once Loved Davy Jones
Understandably, some fans were curious as to why Tia Dalma would help return Jack from purgatory, something which is only hinted at in Dead Man’s Chest. The implication is that Tia had a romantic interest in Jack and the pair were lovers at some point, but this hardly seems like sufficient reason for her to risk life and limb returning him from purgatory when Jack has been romantically involved with half the cast of the trilogy. Moreover, it doesn’t explain why she revived Captain Barbossa. This mystery is central to her enigmatic character's motivations, and it is answered through a closer look at her backstory provided by the third film At World's End. Here, the eventual Miss Moneypenny actor Naomie Harris gets an opportunity to further develop the character of Tia Dalma in an interesting and tragic backstory that clarifies her motives.
Unfortunately, the sequels barely have time for this subplot, but it’s nonetheless up there with Will and Elizabeth’s heartbreaking romance in terms of memorable Pirates of the Caribbean trysts. Early on in the cluttered action of At World’s End, it’s revealed that Tia and Davy Jones were once lovers and she made a great sacrifice to be with him, only for him to betray her. The nature of this great sacrifice only becomes clear later in the film, but their short-lived reunion makes it obvious that the pair have history and something sad pulled her and Davy Jones apart years earlier.
Tia Dalma Is Secretly Calypso Trapped In Human Form
Near the end of At World’s End, everything finally comes to the surface, and viewers are given a fuller picture of Tia Dalma's tragic fate. Numerous plot threads come together to make sense of Tia Dalma and Davy Jones’ doomed love affair, her revival of Jack and Barbossa, and the duplicitous double-crossing of the Pirates Lords throughout the three films. The third film in the series reveals that Tia Dalma is actually the sea goddess Calypso, bound to human form when her affair with Davy Jones ended with his betrayal of her to the Pirate Lords. Davy Jones sold out Calypso and tricked her into assuming human form, only for his fellow pirate lords to trap her in her mortal body thus leading Tia Dalma to revive Jack Sparrow and Captain Barbossa as she needs both of them present to return to her goddess form. When she’s freed from the bonds of humanity, viewers get a glimpse of the extent of her powers, and once they’re revealed, these make her one of the strongest beings in the Pirates of the Caribbean universe.
Tia Dalma’s Powers
When she is initially introduced in Dead Man’s Chest as Tia Dalma, Harris’ character has a limited set of supernatural powers comparable to Captian Barbossa or the later film Dead Men Tell No Tales’ villain, Captain Salazar. As a hoodoo sorceress, she’s able to revive the dead Barbossa and later help bring Jack back from purgatory, but that’s about it in terms of abilities when she’s still trapped in human form. Viewers don’t see the extent of Tia Dalma’s powers until she turns back into Calypso and unleashes hell on the high seas. At the close of At World’s End, she grows to over fifty feet tall, shatters her body into thousands of crabs, and eventually creates a maelstrom that kills off much of the cast and provides the dramatic end to the trilogy’s action. Although the Royal Navy and East India Trading Company, under the command of Cutler Beckett, and Davy Jones’ grotesque crew of the Flying Dutchman provide much of the movie’s immediate threat, Calypso is revealed to be by far the most powerful being in the Pirates of the Caribbean universe during her transformation at the end of At World’s End. By the closing moments of Pirates of The Caribbean: At World's End, Tia Dalma's power far outstrips not only the human antagonists but even her love interest and eventual enemy Davy Jones who is capable of killing the Kraken itself.