Dead Man's Chest Shows the Wasted Potential of an Important Subplot

Although the Pirates of the Caribbean the franchise had many intriguing supporting stars, one Dead Man's Chest character proves that sequels often wasted these underutilized numbers. Anyone who has seen the frustrating Pirates of the Caribbean sequels can attest to the franchise's mistakes. Later sequels lightened the tone of the series, losing the horror-centric feel of the original blockbuster, and made Jack Sparrow the star of the franchise. While Johnny Depp's antihero was an iconic character in small doses, his rise to main character status drained him of his novelty charm and made him a tiresome, overexposed protagonist.

However, a look at the many villains of Pirates of the Caribbean the franchise proves that this wasn't the only big problem the series had with its characters. THE Pirates of the Caribbean the films also had a terrible tendency to introduce promising new supporting characters, only to forget about them immediately after their introduction. After the end of Dead Man's Chest featured Davy Jones' Lovecraftian monster, the Kraken, At the end of the world it abruptly revealed that the gigantic beast had been killed off-screen. Unfortunately, the Kraken's disappointing Pirates of the Caribbean death wasn't even Dead Man's ChestThe worst mistake.

Bootstrap Bill's First Scene in Dead Man's Chest Set High Expectations for the POTC Character

Dead Man's Chest Implied Stellan Skarsgard's Character Would Be Pivotal

2006 Dead Man's Chest I could never get a handle on its tone, but the sequence featured some really great standalone moments. One of them is the introduction of Will's estranged father, Stellan Skarsgard's Bootstrap Bill. A disfigured, undead member of Davy Jones' immortal crew, Bootstrap Bill is a former acquaintance of Jack's. Bootstrap Bill is introduced as a chilling new villain in Dead Man's Chestinitially getting along well with Jack before reminding him of his debt to Davy Jones. Bill brands Jack with the Black Spot to warn him that the Kraken is after him, but he seems genuinely worried about it.

Thanks to his long-standing respect for Jack, Bill is conflicted about his duty to Jones. The scene leans into Skarsgard's grizzled on-screen persona as he admits his role in the riot to Jack. So, the Pirates of the Caribbean the sequels effectively forgot Bootstrap Bill's relationship with Jack entirely. When he is seen occasionally during the rest of the Dead Man's Chest and At the end of the worldBootstrap Bill exists mainly just as an obstacle to Will and Elizabeth's happiness. Still, he's the least of the problems and feels superfluous in an already overcrowded story.

How Bootstrap Bill Was Wasted in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

The Pirates of the Caribbean sequel never gave Bootstrap Bill anything to do

Bootstrap Bill's introduction oozes atmosphere and has an incredibly potent tension built into its premise. The revelation that Will's father is Jones' messenger and the harbinger of Jack's impending doom is ingenious, but it never goes anywhere in the subsequent films. Jack dies and returns from the dead soon after, Davy Jones is eventually defeated, and Bootstrap Bill barely gets a role in the ensuing mayhem. In all, the presence of Will's father barely impacts the plot. Although Skarsgard granted his Dead Man's Chest character a memorable and frightening screen presence, the Pirates of the Caribbean Unfortunately, the films wasted Bootstrap Bill's potential.