Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean franchise has had its fair share of impressive, memorable, and over-the-top villains throughout its initial four installments. From Geoffrey Rush’s Captain Barbossa, Bill Nighy’s Davy Jones, or even Ian McShane’s Blackbeard, if there’s one thing that the franchise has never had a problem with, it’s rounding up talented actors to play its lead antagonists. That tradition continues with the franchise’s newest installment, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, featuring Javier Bardem’s ghostly, strangely funny (it seems like) Captain Salazar.

After he and his pirate crew escape from the Devil’s Triangle, the film begins as Salazar embarks on a mission to kill every pirate still at sea, including and specifically Johnny Depp’s notorious, Captain Jack Sparrow. As usual, this spurs the latter on a near-impossible mission to procure the famed Trident of Poseidon in order to try and escape death once more, if he can, anyways.

Following the recent release of the film’s update synopsis last week as well, a brand new image of Bardem’s Salazar has been released online by USA Today, giving fans of the franchise the first look at Salazar at the wheel of his mysterious ship. Take a look at the image for yourself below:

Even since the film’s first teaser trailer was released, it was clear that Bardem’s Salazar was going to be unlike any other villain that the Pirates franchise has seen before. Aside from just his undead origins, it’s his particularly bloodthirsty mission and Bardem’s signature mix of awkward humor and genuinely pure evil that he brings whenever he plays a villain onscreen, that have already made him stand out from the rest in what could possibly be, one of the franchise’s best casting decisions to date. Considering Depp was unexpectedly nominated for an Oscar for his performance as Jack Sparrow in the first Pirates film too, that’s saying something.

Foreign directors Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg are going to be at the helm of Dead Men Tell No Tales, taking over the reins of the franchise after Gore Verbinski directed the first three installments, and Chicago director Rob Marshall’s work on the fourth, On Stranger Tides. While not much has been released from the new film either, it seems clear from the teaser trailer, that the duo were going to be keeping the signature look of the franchise the same with Dead Men Tell No Tales at least, which has always been one of the franchise’s most defining and strongest factors. Based on the Disney amusement park ride, it’s had the kind of future and longevity that no one could have predicted, but after four installments, it’ll be interesting to see if Rønning, Sandberg, and Bardem are able to breathe new life into the Pirates world, when it hits theaters later this year.

Source: USA Today

  • Pirates of the Caribbean 5 Release Date: 2017-05-26