The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise looks set to soon move on from Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow, but there’s no way that the series can function without the actor’s contributions to the iconic character. Since the series began in 2003 with Gore Verbinski’s The Curse of the Black Pearl, the Pirate of the Caribbean franchise has centered around Depp’s portrayal of the feckless antihero Captain Jack Sparrow.
Due to the actor’s continuing legal battle against his ex-wife and alleged ab Amber Heard, Depp has stepped down from the Fantastic Beasts movies, after previously appearing in the first two installments. He also looks set to be replaced in the rebooted Pirates of the Caribbean 6, and while it’s understandable that the star would take time away from work for personal reasons, the franchise will struggle to find an identity of its own without Depp's contributions.
Sans Depp's portrayal of Sparrow, the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise is likely to have a hard time continuing without the star at its center, as Depp has been central to its success in of style, tone, and story since the first film debuted. It’s unlikely that Depp will return to the role, but it’s equally unlikely that Pirates of the Caribbean will be able to establish a new identity in his absence as he has established a unique persona that will be difficult to emulate, and this character has gone on to shape the style of the series.
He Set The Tone of the Franchise
When Pirates of the Caribbean sequels could never match his loose, easy charm, the performance nonetheless set the tone for the films that followed.
The second movie, Dead Man’s Chest, was criticized for its lighter, more cartoony tone and more zany, over-the-top action sequences, but both of these decisions have their roots in Depp’s character choices and freewheeling, off-the-cuff silliness. Although the movies couldn’t match the actor’s style, there’s still a clear attempt to not only center Jack Sparrow more but also to lighten the tone of the movies themselves to better mirror his flippant, devil-may-care charm. It’s an issue epitomized by the franchise's fifth installment, Elizabeth Swann, and Jack Sparrow.
Jack Sparrow Carried The Sequels
Speaking of the movies never matching Depp, even the worst Pirates of the Caribbean installments benefit from this approach of putting the actor front and center. He’s the only redeeming aspect of 2011’s critically abhorred On Stranger Tides, where the absence of Bloom and Knightley proves that a compelling cast of ing characters was necessary despite Depp’s obvious star power. The actor’s failed attempts to recreate the magic of Jack Sparrow in later flops such as The Lone Ranger and Mordecai proves that the formula of Pirate of the Caribbean isn’t infallible, but the lack of fan interest in Kaya Scoledario’s Dead Men Tell No Tales heroine and Sam Claflin's On Stranger Tides protagonist proves that Depp's performance is central to the appeal of the series.
While the later Pirates of the Caribbean movies used real-life nautical legends in an attempt to establish an identity outside of anchoring themselves around Jack Sparrow, these attempts were too little, too late, and it’s now a fool’s errand to try changing this formula after five outings. At World’s End may have introduced nine Pirate lords and all manner of associated lore to the franchise, but a solid ten minutes of its runtime were devoted to Jack interacting with himself in purgatory while another ten went to him interacting with Keith Richards’ portrayal of his estranged father. The mythology never landed because the series never strayed far from Jack Sparrow, and as such, any reboot will be left with a massive missing ingredient at the core of its action.
There Isn’t Enough Lore
While Depp’s absence would give the Pirates of the Caribbean series has now given them not one, but two, endings.
Alternatively, the series could opt for a wholesale continuity reboot and not only replace Depp, but also all of the ing cast and characters. However, this approach is also unlikely to win over audiences as it would mean dropping more minor characters like Calypso and Davy Jones who, while they couldn't carry an entire installment as the villain, do have more room for further exploration. Many of these figures fall in the unfortunate chasm of being too interesting to drop entirely, but not memorable enough to carry a Depp-free movie. This in turn leaves the franchise creators in an unenviable position of attempting to reboot a property without its central selling point, meaning there’s an argument to be made that the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise should be allowed to end with the retirement of Depp’s Sparrow. As the heart of the series, it’s hard to picture a Pirates of the Caribbean movie without Depp’s Sparrow, and as a result, it could be time for the series to come to a close rather than attempting to replace its libertine hero.
