Later this month, Pirates of the Caribbean will sail back into theaters with its fifth installment. The franchise will see Johnny Depp reprise his role as Captain Jack Sparrow as the pirate goes head-to-head against the undead hunter Captain Salazar. The film, which is aptly titled Dead Men Tell No Tales, is set to bring in a slew of new characters – but audiences have vocalized one complaint with the film. Aside from Kaya Scodelario, Pirates of the Caribbean 5 has lacked any notable female leads, and some fans aren’t pleased with the decision.
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However, it appears that the film wasn’t always so male-centric. In a recent blog post, screenwriter Terry Rossio admitted the villain for Pirates of the Caribbean 5 was meant to be a woman. However, the baddie was turned in a man after Johnny Depp nixed the idea.
“My version of Dead Men Tell No Tales was set aside because it featured a female villain,” Rossio wrote, “and Johnny Depp was worried that would be redundant to Dark Shadows, which also featured a female villain.”
As such, Pirates of the Caribbean 5 chose to rewrite the original villain so that Javier Bardem could take on the role. Fans have taken time to criticize Depp’s take on the villain, questioning the actor and his motives for writing out a strong female lead. Dark Shadows may have had a female villain, but fans have indicated the presence of another in Dead Men Tell No Tales wouldn’t have been redundant. In a franchise filled with boisterous male leads, netizens have remarked that a new female lead would have been another nice change.
Still, Depp’s insistence seemed to have enough weight behind it for Walt Disney Pictures to switch up the film’s script. Rossio’s story was given a total overhaul, leaving Jeff Nathanson to assume credit for the project’s screenplay. Pirates of the Caribbean 5 will mark the first film of the franchise which doesn’t bear Rossio’s name. So, as the weekend washes in, fans will be given the chance to see how the series fares without its staple writer.
Johnny Depp returns to the big screen as the iconic, swashbuckling anti-hero Jack Sparrow in the all-new Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. The rip-roaring adventure finds down-on-his-luck Captain Jack feeling the winds of ill-fortune blowing strongly his way when deadly ghost sailors, led by the terrifying Captain Salazer (Javier Bardem), escape from the Devil’s Triangle bent on killing every pirate at sea – notably Jack. Jack’s only hope of survival lies in the legendary Trident of Poseidon, but to find it he must forge an uneasy alliance with Carina Smyth (Kaya Scodelario), a brilliant and beautiful astronomer, and Henry (Brenton Thwaites), a headstrong young sailor in the Royal Navy. At the helm of the Dying Gull, his pitifully small and shabby ship, Captain Jack seeks not only to reverse his recent spate of ill fortune, but to save his very life from the most formidable and malicious foe he has never faced.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales is directed by Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg, and stars Johnn Depp, Javier Bardem, Orlando Bloom, Geoffrey Rush, Kaya Scodelario, David Wenham, Brenton Thwaites, Golshifteh Farahani, Stephen Graham, Goran D. Kleut, Kevin McNally, Jessica Green, Martin Klebba, and Nico Cortez.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales hits theaters on May 26, 2017.
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