THE MARQUEE
The siren call of the Caribbean is a hard thing to silence once you’ve tasted the salt air of a four-billion-dollar franchise. It has been seven years since we watched the Black Pearl vanish into a CGI sunset in 2017’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, and while the series’ future has recently looked as murky as a shipwreck at the bottom of the Devil’s Triangle, one of its legacy anchors is signaling that he is more than ready to hoist the sails again. Brenton Thwaites, the man who stepped into the boots of Henry Turner, isn’t just keeping his options open for a sequel—he’s practically campaigning for a spot on the manifest, regardless of the job description.
During a raucous floor Q&A at the recent Calgary Expo, Thwaites was hit with the question that has stalked every living cast member of the $4.5 billion powerhouse: would he return for Pirates of the Caribbean 6? The 34-year-old actor, who has spent the last few years trading cutlasses for cowls as Nightwing in the gritty DC series Titans, didn’t miss a beat. His response was a masterclass in unvarnished franchise loyalty, delivered with the kind of wide-eyed enthusiasm that would make a young Orlando Bloom proud. Thwaites told the crowd he’d return "in a heartbeat," but then he pushed past the standard Hollywood PR script. He joked—with just enough sincerity to make you wonder—that he’d be willing to join the production even if Disney didn't want his face on the poster, suggesting he’d happily take a gig as a crew member just to breathe in the production magic once more.
There is something genuinely refreshing about that level of zeal in an industry where stars often treat blockbusters like a youthful indiscretion they’d rather forget in favor of Oscar-baiting indie dramas. For Thwaites, the role of Henry Turner—the headstrong, heart-on-his-sleeve son of Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann—represented a massive passing of the torch. Fans still point to the emotional high-water mark of the fifth film, where Henry finally shattered the curse of the Flying Dutchman, reuniting his father (Orlando Bloom) and mother (Keira Knightley) on a sun-drenched cliffside. It felt like a definitive curtain call for the Turner lineage, but a post-credits stinger featuring the barnacle-encrusted silhouette of a resurrected Davy Jones suggested the sea had one more nightmare left to share.
The Reboot Storm and the Bruckheimer Strategy
The voyage toward a sixth installment has been anything but a straight line through calm waters. While Thwaites is busy dreaming of his return to the rigging, the franchise’s architects have been sending some dizzying signals about what the next chapter actually entails. Jerry Bruckheimer, the legendary producer who has shepherded this ship since the 2003 original, dropped a massive depth charge into the conversation earlier this year. While promoting The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, Bruckheimer told ComicBook.com that the current plan for the next Pirates outing is a total reboot. "We’re going to reboot Pirates," Bruckheimer stated flatly, noting that a fresh start is an easier puzzle to piece together because "you don’t have to wait for certain actors."
That one sentence sent a shudder through a fandom that remains fiercely protective of its original ensemble. If the film is a total hard-reset, where does that leave Henry Turner? Or, more explosively, where does it leave the ghost of Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow? Thwaites’ recent comments in Calgary feel like a strategic volley in response to this uncertainty. By offering to work behind the scenes, he’s acknowledging the studio’s hunger for new faces while simultaneously reminding the brass at Disney that the existing cast is still deeply, emotionally invested in the lore.
The internal tug-of-war at the Mouse House has been public knowledge for years. For a while, Birds of Prey powerhouse Margot Robbie was locked in for a female-led spin-off penned by Christina Hodson. By late 2022, however, Robbie told Vanity Fair the project seemed dead in the water, only for Bruckheimer to later clarify to The Hollywood Reporter that the script was simply on the back burner in favor of a different narrative. That "different" story is currently being crafted by a duo that has the internet buzzing: veteran Pirates scribe Ted Elliott and The Last of Us showrunner Craig Mazin.
'Too Weird' to Fail: The Legacy of the Turners
If anyone can navigate the tonal tightrope of the Caribbean—that specific blend of slapstick horror and high-seas romance—it’s Craig Mazin. In a candid moment with the Los Angeles Times, Mazin admitted he was shocked Disney even greenlit his and Elliott’s pitch. "We pitched it and thought there’s no way they’re buying it, it’s too weird," Mazin confessed. "And they did!" This "weirdness" might be the exact shot of adrenaline the franchise needs after Dead Men Tell No Tales pulled in a massive $800 million global haul but faced a lukewarm reception from critics who felt the formula was thinning. For the fans, the hope is that this creative eccentricity includes a way to weave the Turner bloodline back into the fold.
Social media has been a hive of activity since Thwaites’ Calgary appearance, with fans on X and Reddit arguing that a Pirates film without a Turner or a Sparrow is a ship without a rudder. "You can't have Henry break his father's curse and then just leave him on a farm for the rest of his life," one fan argued on a trending r/movies thread. Others are pointing to the untapped potential of the chemistry between Thwaites and Kaya Scodelario, who played the brilliant astronomer Carina Smyth. The prospect of a new "Big Three" featuring Henry, Carina, and perhaps a returning Jack Sparrow—or a brand-new wild card—is a narrative goldmine that Disney might be reckless to ignore.
Thwaites clearly understands the weight of the legacy he’s carrying. During the grueling production of the fifth film, he spent months operating within the machinery of a Hollywood titan, learning the rhythms of a world-class set. His willingness to return as a "crew member" isn't just a charming anecdote for the convention circuit; it speaks to the unique, addictive culture of these films—the massive practical ships, the transformative costumes, and the sense of genuine adventure that defined the early 2000s blockbuster era. He isn’t the only one looking back with rose-colored glasses, either; Orlando Bloom told Parade in 2023 that he is curious to see what Will Turner is up to now that he's finally stepped off the Dutchman.
As Disney prepares to chart this new course, the studio is standing at a precarious crossroads. The Pirates franchise is their third-highest-grossing live-action property, sitting just behind the MCU and Star Wars. While a total reboot offers a clean slate and a way to slash talent costs, the vocal, heartfelt support from actors like Thwaites serves as a stark reminder that the heart of the series has always been its human element. Whether Thwaites is wielding a cutlass or, as he joked, a mop, his eagerness proves that the hunger for another voyage hasn't faded—it's just waiting for the wind to catch the sails.
