“Pirates of the Caribbean” Franchise is Not Dead Yet

Disney began cranking up the publicity machine for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales by releasing the first advance poster and a teaser trailer for the fifth installment of the adventures of Capt. Jack Sparrow.

Interestingly, franchise star Johnny Depp is nowhere to be seen in either. Perhaps the studio’s marketing people (wisely) assume that everyone has a very clear image of Jack Sparrow already, and what they need to do is start introducing the new elements.

The clip focuses on this installment’s new villain, Captain Salazar, played by the wonderful Javier Bardem (SkyFall), who always place a brilliant baddie — and even won an Oscar for playing one in No Country for Old Men. Check it out:

His absence from the teaser notwithstanding, Depp does reprise his Oscar-nominated role alongside fellow returnees Orlando Bloom as Will Turner, Geoffrey Rush as Barbossa, Kevin R. McNally as Gibbs and Stephen Graham as Scrum. Legendary rocker Paul McCartney joins fellow franchise newcomers  Kaya Scodelario (The Maze Runner), Brenton Thwaites (Maleficent) and Golshifteh Farahani (Exodus: Gods and Kings) in the cast.

PotC:DMTNT is directed by Espen Sandberg and Joachim Rønning (Kon-Tiki), and the script was written by Jeff Nathanson who, on the one hand, wrote Steven Spielberg‘s Catch Me If You Can, but also scripted Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, so make of that what you will.

The official synopsis of the film reads:

Thrust into an all-new adventure, a down-on-his-luck Captain Jack Sparrow finds the winds of ill-fortune blowing even more strongly when deadly ghost pirates led by his old nemesis, the terrifying Captain Salazar, escape from the Devil’s Triangle, determined to kill every pirate at sea… including him. Captain Jack’s only hope of survival lies in seeking out the legendary Trident of Poseidon, a powerful artifact that bestows upon its possessor total control over the seas.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales opens May 26, 2017.