The writers, as they explain in the clip below, wanted to make the third film “more global,” so they created pirate lords of multiple races, including Gentleman Jocard. In Pirates of the Caribbean at World’s End, a former slave character takes a more prominent role.
The guide states that the ships crew “come from a dozen nations, and include escaped slaves from West Africa and Hispaniola.” Only in the supplemental movie material Pirates of the Caribbean: The Complete Visual Guide does slavery come into play. One of the first hints the audience receives of potential slaves existing or having existed at one time in the Caribbean are the black members of the the Black Pearl‘s crew.Īs seen in this trailer, there are a few black crew members seen in the background:īut, if the movie is simply taken at face value, the audience receives no hint of their backstory. Despite taking place in Jamaica, most signs of colonial life are indistinguishable. Set roughly around the mid-1700s, although no specific time is given, The Curse of the Black Pearl avoids directly dealing with slavery much in the same way The Princess and the Frog skirted the issue of segregation in 1920s New Orleans. To answer this question, I want to unpack The Curse of the Black Pearl and the third film, At World’s End in order to examine how Disney portrays the history of the Caribbean in terms of piracy and what that means for Black Atlantic studies. So what does a comedy/action pirate franchise have to do with the Black Atlantic?
The franchise, in fact, includes books, action figures, video games, and other merchandise (as do many Disney properties) that tie into the film series. Disney made two more sequels starring the original cast and a fourth film (a potential fifth movie is scheduled but not yet green-lit).
Johnny Depp, critically acclaimed for his performance of Captain Jack Sparrow, was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Academy Awards. The first film, The Curse of the Black Pearl, became a runaway hit in 2003, surprising many who believed the pirate genre was dead. Deeps > Contemporary Film and the Black Atlantic > History > Disneyfied Histories: Disney’s Intentional Inaccuracy, Historical Films, and The Black Atlantic > Pirates of the Caribbean: The (Almost) Slaveless Caribbean, Race, and the Black Atlanticĭisney’s Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise began as a theme park ride.
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