Some franchises in the film industry are, to a greater degree, defined by their main protagonist and what they bring to the role than they are by the merit of their own narrative and worldbuilding. And Pirates of the Caribbean is a perfect example of this, despite the fact that Disney has recently decided to push ahead with the next installment without involving Johnny Depp’s legendary Captain Jack Sparrow.
The endless saga of the actor’s legal feud with former wife Amber Heard recently took an unexpected turn when a UK court ruled against the former in his libel case, which led to a whole lot of rage and backlash on social media. And as for Depp’s career prospects in Hollywood, Warner Bros. revealed that they would recast the role of Grindelwald in the Fantastic Beasts saga, so things aren’t exactly going well for him at the moment.
Of course, Disney is also reluctant to continue to work with the actor. Only recently, we heard that a soft reboot of the Pirates franchise is in development, with Margot Robbie in talks to play the lead role. As you’d expect, fans of Jack Sparrow took to social media to show their support for the iconic character and they even started a petition to have the Mouse House rehire Depp, which is currently closing in on 400K signatures on Change.org, as it currently sits at just under 370,000 and is gathering steam rather quickly.
Admittedly, it’s difficult to imagine Pirates of the Caribbean without Captain Jack. In fact, if you take the character’s charisma and charm out of the equation, the story doesn’t have a whole lot else going for it. The last two entries, 2011’s On Stranger Tides and 2017’s Dead Men Tell No Tales, actually go a long way to prove this point by showing just how important he is, as without him, the pics would’ve basically been intolerable to watch, if not downright mediocre.
Alas, this petition has thus far proven almost entirely useless when it comes to changing the decision of Hollywood moguls, so let’s hope that Depp manages to get back on his feet in the near future and maybe convince the Mouse House to give him at least a cameo in the next Pirates of the Caribbean.