After a good number of delays, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales is finally coming together, and today marks the official start of production on the film. To celebrate this big moment for the blockbuster franchise, the Walt Disney Company has officially revealed the movie’s plot synopsis, cluing us in to what we can expect from this next chapter in the life of Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow.
The synopsis came packaged in a press release announcing the start of production, and you can see the entire thing word-for-word below:
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 (Javier Bardem), 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.
As you can tell, Javier Bardem has been set up as the latest antagonist in the fantasy franchise – following in the footsteps of Geoffrey Rush, Bill Nighy and Ian McShane – and the movie’s big MacGuffin this time around will be the Trident of Poseidon. Johnny Depp will once again be back as Jack Sparrow, while Pirates of the Caribbean 5’s supporting cast also officially includes The Maze Runner’s Kaya Scodelario, Exodus: Gods and Kings’s Golshifteh Farahani, and Maleficent’s Brenton Thwaites. Set to reprise their roles from previous Pirates movies will be the aforementioned Geoffrey Rush (as Barbossa), Kevin R. McNally (as Joshamee Gibbs) and Stephen Graham (as Scrum).
While this official plot synopsis obviously does the best job driving home exactly what Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales is about, it’s interesting to add this information to what has been leaked out in recent months. Reports have said that Javier Bardem’s Captain Salazar has a particular bone to pick with Jack Sparrow, as the villain is on the hunt for revenge for the death of his brother (which Captain Jack is apparently responsible for). That certainly will help keep the plot focused, as killing every pirate is kind of a big job and making Sparrow an important target will keep the story centered on him.
Directors Espen Sandberg & Joachim Rønning are at the helm of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, which is now filming Village Roadshow Studios and on locations in Queensland, Australia. It’s unclear exactly how long production is expected to last, but the film has been dated for release on July 7, 2017.
