Acclaimed actor Johnny Depp has taken up an array of truly iconic roles in his decades-long cinematic journey, but none as memorable as Captain Jack Sparrow in Disney's enduring film series, Pirates of the Caribbean. Owing primarily to Depp’s stellar portrayal of Sparrow, the swashbuckler film series went on to gross over $4.5 billion worldwide, and amass an almost cult-like global following.
However, as fans have frequently pointed out, not everything about the acclaimed franchise makes sense, owing to an array of convoluted storylines introduced in the sequels. But it’s not just fans who’ve found the sequels unnecessarily confusing.
As it turns out, Johnny Depp repeatedly butted heads with Disney while filming the second and third iterations in the film series, Dead Man’s Chest and At World’s end, over the seemingly endless array of unnecessary story arcs. Read on to find out which specific subplots roused the acclaimed actor’s ire.
Johnny Depp Repeatedly Clashed With Disney Over Pirates Of The Caribbean Subplots
Debuting in 2003 with the critically lauded The Curse of the Black Pearl, Pirates of the Caribbean is one of Disney’s most successful film franchises yet. However, beneath this glimmering success lies a production process marred by recurrent clashes between Depp and Disney, primarily revolving around Captain Jack Sparrow's numerous eccentricities.
Pirates of the Caribbean
“Disney hated me. [They were] thinking of every way they could to get rid of me, to fire me,” Depp admitted to GQ in 2018. “‘Oh, we’re going to have to subtitle him.’ ‘We don’t understand Captain Jack Sparrow. What’s wrong with him?’ ‘What’s wrong with his arms?’ ‘Is he drunk?’ ‘Is he mentally f**king stupefied?’ ‘Is he gay?’”
But the clashes didn’t end there. Following a mind-blowingly successful maiden voyage, Disney forged ahead with four more sequels, which ended up faltering primarily due to tangled and perplexing storylines.
Turns out, the bewildering subplots didn’t just strike a chord with fans and critics, but also with Depp himself; who repeatedly found himself at odds with Disney over certain story arcs. “Why must you have these f**king heinous subplots?” Depp recalled telling the studio in a 2018 interview with RollingStone. “It’s convoluted. There is not a f**king soul that wants to see Captain Jack Sparrow sad.”
Which Pirates Of The Caribbean Subplots Did Johnny Depp Hate?
Pirates of the Caribbean enthusiasts have repeatedly pointed out how needlessly convoluted the franchise became over time. As it turns out, there's a pretty good reason why The Curse of the Black Pearl stands out as the most coherent iteration in the franchise.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Johnny Depp openly acknowledged that the plot-centric sequels came as somewhat of an afterthought, resulting in some pretty intricate and confusing storylines.
“They had to invent a trilogy out of nowhere,” he said.
“It was plot driven and complicated. I remember talking to [Gore Verbinski, director of the first three films] at certain points during production of 2 or 3, and saying: ‘I don’t really know what this means.’ He said, ‘Neither do I, but let’s just shoot it.’ This guy is this guy’s dad, and this guy was in love with this broad. It was like, ‘What?’”
As for which precise storylines piqued the acclaimed actor's discontent, one can only speculate that, much like numerous fans, he too was bewildered by the abrupt return of Will's estranged father, Bootstrap Bill, and the tangled romantic history between the goddess Calypso and Davy Jones in the second iteration, Dead Man’s Chest.
With the third installment becoming even more intricate than the second, Depp's unease escalated, to the point where he harbored reservations about participating in future installments. “I felt if we were going to do a 4, that more than anything we owed the audience a fresh start, without all the complicated mathematics of 1 colliding with 2 and 2 colliding with 3,” he admitted to Entertainment Weekly. “I felt like it was important to eliminate as many complications as possible.”
Is Johnny Depp Ever Returning To The Pirates Of The Caribbean Franchise?
Despite the frequent wrangles, Johnny Depp went on to star in a total of five Pirates of the Caribbean iterations. The now 60-year-old’s reign as Captain Jack Sparrow abruptly came to an end in 2018 when he was unceremoniously dropped from the franchise, amid a particularly nasty bout of bad publicity, triggered by contentious allegations of domestic violence from his ex-wife, Amber Heard.
However, following his equally contentious court battle with Heard, Disney promptly apologized and expressed interest in Depp returning to the franchise. "I know corporate sent him a gift basket with a very heartfelt letter, but I'm unsure how it was received," a source close to Disney revealed. "But what I can tell you is that the studio has already penned up a draft for a film about Jack Sparrow — so they are very hopeful that Johnny will forgive them and return as his iconic character."
However, embittered by the studio’s decision to abandon ship at the first sign of trouble, Depp is determined never to return to the franchise; a position he made abundantly clear while responding to cross-examination from Amber Heard’s attorney, Ben Rottenborn, in 2022.
“The fact is, Mr. Depp, if Disney came to you with $300 million and a million alpacas, nothing on this earth would get you to go back and work with Disney on a ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ film? Correct?” RottenBorn asked. “That is true, Mr. Rottenborn,” Depp answered.
As reported by MailOnline, the 21 Jump Street star may even be contemplating a retreat from the Hollywood scene altogether. “He says he isn't interested in speaking someone else's words,” an inside source revealed to the outlet. “He is interested in authentic expression of himself, through art and music at the moment. He's got no interest in Hollywood at all.”
