It’s wild to think it’s been almost a decade since the latest of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies came out. On top of that, it’s also been over 20 years since the blockbuster franchise began. Despite how much time has passed though, Disney’s swashbuckling franchise remains a treasure for the studio, and within Orlando Bloom’s career. As the British actor recently promoted 2025 movie release, he recalled the time he needed to be convinced to play Will Turner. Not only that, but he also dropped thoughts on reprising his famed role.
Orlando Bloom Almost Turned Down Pirates Of The Caribbean For Being A ‘Crazy’ Idea
Earlier this year, Bloom spoke about having “a lot of respect” for his time on the Pirates movies. The 48-year-old actor also revealed — while promoting his new film, Deep Cover — that it actually took some convincing for him to buy into the concept of the film series. As he recalled to L’Officiel:
My agent said, Disney wants to make a movie based on a theme park ride, and I was like, This is crazy?
While the idea of making a movie out of a Disney theme park ride seems like a no-brainer these days. However, only a couple of those kinds of films had hit theaters before The Curse of the Black Pearl did in 2003, and they weren’t that successful. So Orlando Bloom wasn’t sure it was a good idea. However, when he was offered the role, he was working with Geoffrey Rush (a.k.a. Captain Hector Barbosa of the Pirates series) on the film Ned Kelly. It was on that set that Rush assured Bloom it was a good idea to take the role, and now the latter jokes:
Geoffrey Rush says I owe him 10 percent.
Orlando Bloom went on to star as Will Turner alongside Johnny Depp and Kiera Knightley in four out of the five Pirates of the Caribbean movies. To this day, Will remains one of Bloom’s most beloved movie characters right behind Legolas in The Lord of the Rings films. I’m sure he’s grateful he listened to Rush!
Orland Bloom Shares Thoughts On Returning To The Pirates Franchise
That brings us to the future of Pirates of the Caribbean, which has remained in flux ever since the fifth movie hit cinemas in 2017. Over the years, there have been a lot of reports about what’s going on with the franchise. There have been claims that suggest both a reboot and continuation to the series starring Johnny Depp are in the works. Here’s what Bloom told ITV’s This Morning about his thoughts about returning as Turner (via Wales Online):
Well, I don’t know, I can’t say anything at the moment because I really don’t know, but there’s definitely availability. I think they’re trying to work out what it would all look like, I personally think it’d be great to get the band back together, that would be great, but there are always different ideas, and so we’ll see where it lands.
At the end of 2024, it was confirmed that there are two scripts for Pirates 6 in existence, one with Depp’s Jack Sparrow and one without him. And, earlier this week, there was buzz regarding a rumor about Depp being in “advanced” negotiations with Disney to play the beloved pirate once again. At this time, we’re definitely taking those claims with a grain of salt for now. Nevertheless, it’s great to hear that Bloom is still up for more years after nearly turning down the franchise’s original film.
As we speculate about what could be next for Pirates of the Caribbean, see Orlando Bloom in Deep Cover, which lands on Amazon Prime Video on June 12.