Will Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley return?
Story by Matt Cummings
For fans of Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, it's been a bumpy road as of late. Two excellent films - Curse of the Black Pearl and Dead Man's Chest - were followed up by two thoroughly disappointing ones, in At World's End and On Stranger Tides. Some have pointed out that the failure of the last two were due to poor character development of leads Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley, and that their absence in On Stranger Tides sealed the fate of one of the most successful live-action series in history.
Still others blame the decision to feature Actor Johnny Depp's quirky Jack Sparrow so prominently in On Stranger Tides as the prominent reason for that film's failure. Debate was fierce over whether the Knightley-Bloom-Depp triangle was the reason for the series' early success, and whether or not that relationship should be renewed. As Dead Men Tell No Tales begins filming in Australia, news on several fronts has arrived that both answers this question and might give fans continued pause.
Not only are Bloom and Knightley not returning in leading roles (and may not appear at all), but it appears that Director Gore Verbinski is not helming the project. Additionally, Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer Productions released the following synopsis that places Jack Sparrow dead center as the lead in the film:
“Thrust into an all-new adventure, a down-on-his-luck Captain Jack Sparrow finds the winds of ill-fortune blowing even more strongly when deadly ghost pirates led by his old nemesis, the terrifying Captain Salazar (Bardem), escape from the Devil’s Triangle, determined to kill every pirate at sea…including him. Captain Jack’s only hope of survival lies in seeking out the legendary Trident of Poseidon, a powerful artifact that bestows upon its possessor total control over the seas.”
From the looks of it, this is a completely different synopsis that Brendon Thwaites leaked a few weeks ago, perhaps indicating his own character arc and not that of the larger film. Still, putting the pieces together tells us that this will be another Johnny Depp-centered film, and that relative newcomers Espen Sandberg and Joachim Rønning will be directing the picture, perhaps giving it a different feel than audiences might have been hoping for.
Not all hope is lost: we do know that Geoffrey Rush will return as Captain Hector Barbossa, along with Kevin R. McNally as Joshamee Gibbs and Stephen Graham as Scrum. However, Sandberg and Rønning do have a bit of an uphill battle, considering the lukewarm reception which On Stranger Tides received. They will need to return the series to its funny but action-packed roots without centering on one character but instead tell a more connected story featuring multiple leads. If they can do that - and still give Depp his time - then Dead Men Tell No Tales will be another success that this franchise sorely needs.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales sails into theaters on July 7th, 2017.
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