The Pirates of the Caribbean movies may seem unlikely to ever get past Johnny Depp’s departure, but the franchise has an under-utilized rogues' gallery of villains who prove this isn’t true. The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise is struggling with Johnny Depp’s exit. There is no denying that, despite the announcement in 2020 of a Margot Robbie-starring Pirates of the Caribbean spinoff, the series seems to have nowhere to go without Depp’s Jack Sparrow at its center.
There has been little news about the potential Robbie-centric spinoff since its initial announcement over a year ago, and it is easy to discern why. A petition calling for Depp’s return to the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise has garnered more than 700,000 signatures, reaffirming the fact that fans are not ready to let go of the actor’s lovable antihero. Meanwhile, the relative underperformance of Jungle Cruise proved that viewers would not flock to cinemas to see just any old historical action-adventure comedy with elements of romance, fantasy, and horror.
All of this amounts to bad news for producers hoping to get another Pirates of the Caribbean project out of the franchise without bringing back Depp as Jack Sparrow. However, the answer to this issue may lie in the existing characters of the series. Both the original Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy and the sequels include some truly great villains who have massive fandoms online and who are interesting enough to deserve a prequel of their own. If the creators were to stop their attempts to replace Depp in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and instead focus on a television series that fills in these villain backstories, this could be the best way to keep the franchise alive without drawing attention to Jack Sparrow's absence.
Why Pirates of The Caribbean Doesn’t Need A Sequel
The last two Pirates of the Caribbean movies made it clear that the series is running out of ideas, and another sequel would be little more than the continued critically-maligned misadventures of Jack Sparrow. Depp’s departure makes this unlikely, but even if the actor were willing to return, one performance alone doesn’t make for an engaging movie. The most recent Pirates of the Caribbean sequel saw Depp nominated for a Worst Actor Razzie for his performance as Jack Sparrow, whereas 2003’s original movie, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, saw the actor nab a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the Academy Awards. This shift in his overall reception proves that Depp alone can’t keep viewers coming back even if he returns to the series — something that seems less and less likely with each passing year.
Why A Pirates of the Caribbean Reboot Won’t Work
While attempting to bring back Johnny Depp for another sequel is a bad idea, dropping Jack Sparrow and attempting to continue the Pirates of the Caribbean series is an even worse one. As it stands, Jack Sparrow is the center of the franchise’s fictional universe, and none of the other characters have his appeal, so attempting to replace him and keeping less popular legacy characters around will only seem like a thinly veiled copy of the original. Few viewers will be interested in seeing a movie starring Margot Robbie’s Jack Sparrow replacement and Kaya Scodelario returning as Carina, for example, or Orlando Bloom’s original trilogy character, Will Turner. These supporting stars were never the primary draw of the movies, although the scene-stealing villains of the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy and its sequels could provide a path for the next project to follow.
The Pirates of the Caribbean Movies Wasted Their Villains
Billy Nighy’s beloved Davy Jones is arguably the most famous instance of a fascinating villain being wasted by the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, but he’s only one antagonist in the series that habitually under-used intriguing villains. Naomi Harris’s Tia Dalma was a literal goddess, but viewers barely even glimpsed her powers, and her tragic backstory was limited to one brief conversation with Jones that got lost in the cluttered, convoluted story of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. Cutler Beckett was a ruthless, glassy-eyed monster who never got a proper backstory or grounding, while the Kraken was a gigantic leviathan that brought Lovecraftian horror to the Pirates of the Caribbean series, but it was only seen once before the beast was killed off for good. Even Captain Salazar and Blackbeard, both of whom only appeared in the widely-disliked sequels, were seen as campy high points of both movies, proving that the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise has an incredible stable of antagonists to flesh out if the series would simply leave Jack Sparrow alone for a moment.
Why a Pirates of the Caribbean Villain Series Would Work
Much like the ever-growing MCU has been able to spawn countless spinoffs from minor characters and their backstories, the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise could sustain an entire television spinoff by telling the creepy origin stories of its many memorable villains. Since each episode could provide an individual villain’s backstory, the disappointing absence of Depp’s Jack Sparrow would never be too noticeable. Provided the creators used this opportunity to expand out the franchise’s fictional universe and stayed true to the tone of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, tales of who Salazar was during his life or how Blackbeard became the monster he is could be a fascinating addition to the franchise.
The Kraken was a wasted opportunity because its only appearance in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies proved it was an awesomely powerful, Cthulu-sized monstrosity capable of immense destruction. However, a backstory that explained how it came to be the pet of Davy Jones could make the monster tragic and Jones more sympathetic while still giving the monster another chance to show off its terrifying powers. Speaking of Bill Nighy’s Davy Jones, the fifth Pirates of the Caribbean movie promised he would be back for revenge on Will and Elizabeth, but the story of why he decided to betray his lost love, Tia Dalma, seems like a much more moving, involving tale than another standard-issue revenge adventure. Changing the context of these Pirates of the Caribbean villains and encouraging fans to see them as rounded entities outside of their interactions with Jack Sparrow could save the franchise from relying on its lone, long-gone antihero going forward.