From his own performances in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, to Sweeney Todd to Alice in Wonderland, to Mortdecai, to Into the Woods, to The Lone Ranger, it all felt like variations on a Jack Sparrow theme. In no career was this trend more evident than Depp’s own. The effects of the character’s popularity were almost immediate.Īll of blockbuster output - from Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes reboot to the anarchy of Heath Ledger’s Joker - seemed tinged with Depp’s now-signature strangeness.
In the years after Curse of the Black Pearl, Jack Sparrow became the poster boy for new Pirates movies and a pop culture idol. With his drunken sword fights, half-baked antics that always seem to work, and his lovable roguishness, he’s the real swashbuckling pirate in the franchise, which is exactly what made him the standout favorite for both audience and critics. Keira Knightley’s Elizabeth Swann may have been the heart of the blockbuster, but Depp’s Jack Sparrow had all the fun. But even with his extra screen time, he was never really integral to the plot, so the ploy worked. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl took a gamble: Jack Sparrow, the kind of wacky supporting character who might command eight-or-so memorable minutes of screentime, was one of the stars. Grab your cutlass and hoist the colors: here be Polygon’s take on all things PotC. With the Pirates of the Caribbean movies more accessible than ever, and a summer season void of blockbusters, this month we’re diving deep into Disney’s swashbuckling series.