Orlando Bloom Comeback Imminent, Returning To One Of His Biggest Franchises?
Should Orlando Bloom return to this role after all these years?
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Orlando Bloom is most well-known for his roles in two major franchises: Lord of the Rings, where he played Legolas, and Pirates of the Caribbean, where he played Will Turner. While it’s unlikely we’ll ever see the actor as Legolas again, there’s still a possibility in the Disney Pirates films. Admittedly, plans for Disney’s Pirates franchise have gotten a little confusing. A lot of that is due to the loss of Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow, following issues in his personal life. Though some fans still want to see Sparrow return, that door feels pretty firmly shut. Is there a possibility that bringing back other legacy characters, like Will Turner, could help soften the blow of losing Johnny Depp? According to a rumor from We Got This Covered, Orlando Bloom may soon be returning to the role of Will Turner in order to do just that.
While updates about Pirates of the Caribbean movies have been sparse in recent months, Disney is still working on two separate projects for the franchise. One movie is supposed to star Margot Robbie and be written by Christina Hodson. That film still sounds to be in its early stages. The other is a sequel to 2017’s Dead Men Tell No Tales, which did have an appearance by Orlando Bloom. It’s the direct sequel that We Got This Covered hears may, again, feature the actor. They’re hearing that the door is open for the actor to return, though they don’t specify what that means. It would be nice to know if that means Disney is in talks with the actor. That sounds like what they’re suggesting, but that wasn’t explicitly said. The outlet added that they hear the movie will set Will Turner up to be the “main legacy player” for the future movies in the franchise.
Could Orlando Bloom’s Will Turner be the key to making Pirates of the Caribbean movies a must-see once again? Could his character make up for the lack of Johnny Depp in the films? While this is only a rumor from We Got This Covered at this point, it doesn’t sound like enough to make a great story moving forward, at least not on its own.
In the recent past, Orlando Bloom has talked about his early career. Being in films like Pirates of the Caribbean, he got made fun of a fair amount. He was known as a pretty boy with long hair in both of his major franchise appearances. In Pirates, while he may have been intended to be the star before Captain Jack Sparrow became such a hit, he ended up playing what he described as Johnny Depp’s straight guy, the character that helped make Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow shine. Bloom seemed to look back on that positively. But, without Jack Sparrow, does Will Turner have enough shine on his own?
Bringing the story of the Turner family back on the center stage could make sense as a strong story thread for the Pirates franchise. In Dead Men Tell No Tales, Davy Jones wanted to go after the family more. The issue is that the family has never been a strong enough centerpiece on its own. With the story built so strongly on the character of Jack Sparrow, bringing these Disney movies back is going to require something bigger. Bringing forward a legacy character like Orlando Bloom’s Will Turner is one thing, but they’ll likely need something just as remarkable as Jack Sparrow to make something audiences really want to see again, and there is certainly a lot of audience doubt that that kind of magic is going to be possible to create anew.
