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The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise needs Sparrow to function in the same way that Scream 2022 didn’t need Sidney Prescott onscreen at all times, or Fast & Furious was able to retool the franchise after the untimely death of Paul Walker. Now, the Pirates of the Caribbean series is put in an unenviable position, even disregarding Depp’s well-publicized ongoing personal troubles.
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In this way, his appeal has been exhausted by over-exposure, and a character that is designed to exist in small doses has been blamed for failing to grow and change when this same evolution would sap him of his flighty, feckless, devil-may-care appeal.
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Depp’s character is the crux of the later Pirates of the Caribbean sequels, and his presence alone forms their primary appeal for many fans, which paradoxically results in audiences liking him less than ever before. Given the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise has only grown to rely on Depp’s Jack Sparrow more and more over the years, the character has become more indispensable while growing less and less well-liked. The Jack Sparrow who stole the show in the first Pirates of the Caribbean movies was always intended to be a scene-stealing supporting star, not the franchise’s lead. This exhausted Sparrow’s appeal not because it changed the character in any meaningful way but because the Pirates of the Caribbean antihero stayed the same. The Pirates of the Caribbean movies grew to rely on Jack Sparrow as their sole source of compelling character drama, and this over-reliance resulted in steadily more screen-time for Depp’s character. Pirates of the Caribbean 6 replacing Depp’s Jack Sparrow has not been put off because the creators want to rehire his original actor or “fix” the protagonist, but because Sparrow is an irreplaceable element of the series. Related: The Pirates of the Caribbean Role Brian Cox Turned Down However, despite how drastically audience reactions to replacing Depp’s Jack Sparrow have shifted over the years, Jack can’t be fixed because he’s not broken. As if to underline this, 2003's first Pirates of the Caribbean movie saw Depp nominated for an Oscar for his role as Sparrow, while 2017's fifth Pirates of the Caribbean movie saw the actor nominated for a Razzie award. This discussion is primarily born from an evident disparity between how he was seen in his 2003 screen debut versus his current incarnation. One recurring inquiry in the online discourse surrounding a potential Pirates of the Caribbean 6 is the question of whether the creators of Pirates of the Caribbean can “fix” Sparrow as a character. While the first three Pirates of the Caribbean movies therefore still had issues, their stories didn’t center entirely on Depp’s character-a mistake that the later sequels would double down on. This sprawling list of characters arrives without even mentioning Calypso/Tia Dalma, the villain wasted by the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy due to the film's respective, increasingly over-stuffed plots. In contrast, the original trilogy has almost too many characters, with Elizabeth and Will’s love story, Jack’s crew, the undead Barbossa, the Pirate Lords, Commander Norrington, Davy Jones, the Kraken, and the East India Trading Company all vying for screen time. In terms of plot, the fourth and fifth Pirates of the Caribbean movies focused almost entirely on Depp’s Sparrow at the expense of his new co-stars, creating narratives that felt increasingly paper-thin. Later Pirates of the Caribbean movies became lightweight adventure romps in contrast with the surprisingly dark, scary, and occasionally tragic original trilogy. Between the original trilogy and the Jack-centric sequels, the focus and tone of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies changed.