The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise may have peaked creatively with the very first movie back in 2003, but with global earnings of over $4.5 billion, you can’t deny that the series has a huge fanbase. Still, the sequels continuously became bogged down in over-complicated storytelling that kept adding layer upon layer to the mythology to the point where a lot of it didn’t seem to make much sense anymore, and with the upcoming sixth installment set to be a soft reboot of sorts, perhaps the best idea would be to strip things back and simplify the narrative.
We still don’t know an awful lot about the latest Pirates adventure, other than the news that it will reportedly feature a female lead, and there are still huge question marks surrounding the face of the entire brand. Fans were in uproar when Johnny Depp was booted from his signature role as Jack Sparrow, and with public perception of the actor having shifted dramatically during his high-profile divorce from Amber Heard, there’s every chance that he’ll eventually be brought back into the fold.
We’ve also reported that Orlando Bloom could be set to reprise the role of Will Turner for a cameo in the movie, and now we’re hearing that another of the franchise’s legacy players may be in line for a return. According to our sources – the same ones who said an Aladdin sequel is in the works and a Beauty and the Beast spinoff for Gaston is on the way, both of which turned out to be correct – Disney are keen to have Bill Nighy’s Davy Jones back on board to terrorize a new generation of pirates.
Our source claims that the studio don’t think they made the most of the character’s potential during his original run in the first trilogy, and that’s one of the reasons they want him back in the fold. Nighy was one of the best things about Dead Man’s Chest, and the CGI used to bring him to life still holds up brilliantly today, but At World’s End saw him reduced to a more generic henchman role that didn’t make great use of such a unique and interesting villain.
Given how convoluted the world of Pirates of the Caribbean has become over the years, it surely wouldn’t be too difficult for the writers to come up with some sort of logical reason to bring Davy Jones back that would make sense in the context of the story they’re working on. But for now, we’ll just have to sit tight and wait to see what they’ve got planned for us.
