Despite courting controversy, Johnny Depp remains an incredibly popular actor, yet he still couldn't save Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean movies. While the franchise's critical reception waned over its run, it has been incredibly successful financially, with Pirates of the Caribbean being one of the highest-grossing franchises of all time, raking in $4.52 billion. However, despite the series' box-office numbers and dedicated fanbase, the fall of Pirates of the Caribbean can mostly be traced back to one thing: Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow.
Starting in 2003 with Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Disney's swashbuckling saga has seen success since its beginnings, with the series spanning five blockbuster entries. While the films are based on the popular Disney Parks ride, the five Pirates of the Caribbean movies have gone on to develop their own rich and interesting lore, with some elements becoming so popular that they have been re-integrated into the ride. Over time, the quality of the films became increasingly poor, with the fifth and final entry Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales generally being considered the worst of the bunch. Sadly, what started out as a fun adventure series and loving homage to the ride quickly became a contrived, silly, bloated mess - and Jack Sparrow just made things worse.
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Johnny Depp's initial take on Captain Jack Sparrow was fantastic, with his performance in Curse of the Black Pearl bringing a fun and unique twist to the typical archetype of the pirate captain. Clearly being the standout in the films, Jack Sparrow quickly became the face of the franchise, with him now existing in the pop culture pantheon of Disney legends that few ever reach. Jack Sparrow was swiftly added to the various Disney parks, featured in spin-off books, plastered onto all kinds of merchandise, and more. However, Jack Sparrow gradually went wrong, becoming the driving force behind Pirates of the Caribbean's fall from grace. As the character took center stage and increasingly dominated the narrative, Sparrow's original charisma slowly became the series' Achilles heel. As such, not only was Depp unable to save the Pirates saga, he arguably helped sink it for good.
Curse of the Black Pearl was an instant hit upon its release, making $654.3 million on a $140 million budget. The film launched Depp's career as a bankable, bona fide action star, was the third highest-grossing movie of 2003, and was nominated for five Academy Awards. Curse of the Black Pearl single-handedly brought back the pirate genre, following a series of flops that concluded with 1995's Cutthroat Island. 2006's Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest was an even bigger success, making $1.066 billion on a $225 million budget, although reviews were worse than its predecessor's. The subsequent three films continued this trend, selling more tickets while inflating their budgets, aggrandizing spectacle at the expense of story. Despite their steep decline in quality, the series remained popular at the box office, with Pirates of the Caribbean currently being the 15th highest-grossing franchise of all time. Pirates of the Caribbean was a pop culture phenomenon, one that could have kept going for ages if more care had been taken with the story.
Although it doesn't seem like it now, Jack Sparrow isn't actually the main character of Curse of the Black Pearl. While Jack has a lot of screen time, the original film's story is actually centered on Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann, with the role of Jack being that of an eccentric side character. However, as the series goes on, Jack Sparrow creeps more and more into the spotlight, pushing Will and Elizabeth out of their leading roles. The films solidified this Jack Sparrow mistake in the fourth film, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, as Will and Elizabeth's absence definitively makes Jack Sparrow the main character. He essentially committed mutiny on the series, taking over Will and Elizabeth's franchise in On Stranger Tides. The decision to bring Jack Sparrow to the fore meant that he was inherently associated with the Pirates series' other flaws, meaning that the character was unable to help save the franchise.
While a film centered on Jack Sparrow isn't inherently impossible to make, the problem is that he never evolved across the five films; rather, Jack Sparrow devolved. While Jack Sparrow was drunk, silly, and hedonistic in Curse of the Black Pearl, he felt as if he knew what he was doing, with him truly deserving the title of "best pirate I've ever seen." By the time he appears in Dead Men Tell No Tales, though, Jack Sparrow is only a shell of his former self, bumbling through the movies with no agency. In the later films, Jack Sparrow feels as if he's a complete caricature that has no idea what he is doing, surviving based on luck and plot armor alone. Jack Sparrow in the latter half of Pirates of the Caribbean is the perfect example of Flanderization, the trope named after The Simpsons' Ned Flanders. Jack Sparrow was given plenty of history, with the films sending him to Davy Jones's Locker and introducing his father, but his characterization never changed.
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By the time the Pirates of the Caribbean series was coming to a close, Johnny Depp's starpower was the franchise's only real selling point. Depp's Hollywood popularity quickly faded though, following a series of films in the early 2010s like The Lone Ranger, Transcendence, Mortdecai, and many others. On top of his waning career, the mid-to-late 2010s saw the start of the legal battle between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard. Due to this, the actor was dropped from lucrative franchises, with Depp losing his role in the Fantastic Beasts movies and Universal's failed Dark Universe. Due to the declining popularity of the franchise and Johnny Depp's loss of Hollywood influence, Johnny Depp was let go from Pirates of the Caribbean, essentially killing the franchise due to Jack Sparrow being the last leg it had to stand on. While many debate whether this was a good choice or not, the effect this decision has had on the once-great series is undeniable.
So, while Pirates of the Caribbean has floundered for the past few years, it seems Disney may be trying to revive the once-dead series again. There have been rumblings of a Margot Robbie-led spin-off or reboot, as well as rumors of Disney attempting to bring back Jack Sparrow, although Johnny Depp's Pirates of the Caribbean 6 return seems unlikely. Although another film may one day be made, it is unlikely that the series will ever be as big as it once was. With the increasing focus on Jack Sparrow, Disney continued the franchise solely on Johnny Depp's performance and starpower, and without him, it may never see the success it once did. The Pirates of the Caribbean craze of the early-to-mid 2000s is almost unmatched, and while a continuation led by Margot Robbie may be successful in its own right, it may never capture the lightning in a bottle that the original trilogy did. The later sequels built themselves on the power of Johnny Depp, and ironically, Johnny Depp is what killed Pirates of the Caribbean.