It looks like we’ve seen the last of Keira Knightley as Pirates of the Caribbean character Elizabeth Swann.
In a recent interview with The Times (via The Hollywood Reporter), Knightley explained why she would turn down an offer from Disney to return as Elizabeth Swann in a new Pirates movie.
“I couldn’t go job to job [abroad] now,” the actor shared. “I wouldn’t be in any way fair to them, and I wouldn’t want to. I’ve chosen to have children, I want to bring them up, so I’ve had to take a major step back.”
Knightley also shared that her experience filming the Pirates movies were not always pleasant. She appeared as Elizabeth Swann in the original trilogy and returned for a brief cameo in the fifth installment, 2017’s Dead Men Tell No Tales. “The hours are insane. It’s years of your life, you have no control over where you’re filming, how long you’re filming, what you’re filming,” she added.
Knightley also touched on the lingering negativity surrounding her time with the franchise, much of which had to do with how the public responded to her character and performance.
“It’s a funny thing when you have something that was making and breaking you at the same time. I was seen as shit because of them, and yet because they did so well I was given the opportunity to do the films that I ended up getting Oscar nominations for,” she remarked. “They were the most successful films I’ll ever be a part of, and they were the reason that I was taken down publicly. So they’re a very confused place in my head.”
Disney has been trying to make a sixth Pirates of the Caribbean movie since 2011. Whether one actually ends up getting off the ground remains to be seen; however, franchise producer Jerry Bruckheimer shared in June 2024 that Jeff Nathanson — who scripted Dead Men Tell No Tales — is currently “working on a script.”
All five Pirates of the Caribbean movies are streaming on Disney+.
Are you sad that Knightley has no interest in playing Elizabeth Swann again? Do you think Pirates 6 will ever get made? Share your thoughts in the comments below using your Disqus account!
