Canon

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"Unfortunately, there was never anyone empowered creatively to oversee and manage the entirely of Pirates universe, and coordinate the films with the other ancillary works."

―Terry Rossio

The Pirates of the Caribbean canon is the continually evolving body of authoritative works comprising the official story of Pirates of the Caribbean, encompassing movies, books, comic books, video games. It originated with the theme park ride of the same name, which opened in 1967 as the last Disneyland attraction overseen by Walt Disney. Using the Disneyland original as a jumping-off point, The Walt Disney Company would release the first feature film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, the third-biggest hit of 2003. Soon to be joined by a number of sequels, a swashbuckling film and media franchise was launched. Whether it was movies, video games or theme park attractions, Disney released content to better tie into an emerging, overarching Pirates mythology.

Unlike the expanded universes featured in other franchises like Star Wars and Star Trek, what officially constitutes canon in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise has not been defined. There was never anyone empowered by Disney to oversee and manage the entirety of the Pirates universe, and coordinate the films with the other works. The filmmakers, authors, and other creatives themselves could only speak to the work they've done, albeit separately, on the franchise. The most common viewpoint, however, is that all the feature films are generally viewed as the highest form of canon. All other materials, particularly those that partly contradict the content of the films, can be considered canon or semi-canon. Non-canon materials are usually completely incompatible with the films.

Canon

Films

Although Pirates of the Caribbean originated as a famous Disney theme park attraction, it is primarily a movie franchise using the title of the ride. It began with the first film released by Walt Disney Pictures in 2003, and soon to be joined by two sequels as the "Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy": The Curse of the Black Pearl, Dead Man's Chest, and At World's End. A short film and prequel to The Curse of the Black Pearl titled Tales of the Code: Wedlocked was also made during the third film's production. The franchise continued with the fourth film On Stranger Tides and the fifth film Dead Men Tell No Tales, which were designed separately and considered stand-alone sequels.

With Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, an irreverent wink and homage to the popular Disney ride, producer Jerry Bruckheimer, directed Gore Verbinski, and screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, with actor Johnny Depp, produced the third-biggest hit of 2003. Following the unexpected success of the first movie, which was meant to be a stand-alone and a complete thing at the time, Disney moved swiftly to capitalize on its new franchise with two sequels to be shot simultaneously like the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Bruckheimer, Verbinski, along with Elliott and Rossio chose to retroactively engineer a much larger story to be told over the course of three movies in a swashbuckling adventure trilogy. This practical decision for Dead Man's Chest and At World's End was made to take full advantage of filming locations, sets and availability of its increasingly in-demand cast and crew. Tales of the Code: Wedlocked was directed by James Ward Byrkit and written by Elliott and Rossio, shot in between production for At World's End, designed to be a series of a few fun shorts to fill in the Pirates universe, "and add to the DVD extras section." The Pirates trilogy was followed by two sequels, which were considered stand-alone by the filmmakers as they each had their own stories, different creative teams, and were designed separately. On Stranger Tides was directed by Rob Marshall with a script written once again by Elliott and Rossio, suggested by Tim Powers' 1987 novel On Stranger Tides, with Rossio being quoted in saying that the main guideline was to "create a stand-alone story rather than a continuation of the trilogy, or the start of a new one." Dead Men Tell No Tales was another stand-alone sequel, directed by Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg and was particularly notable for having Jeff Nathanson as the screenwriter, resulting from Rossio's screenplay being set aside and not used for the final version of the story.

Even though all five films are considered canon, they contain some continuity errors and retcons. This is partly due to introducing ideas, concepts, and even characters that were simply unaddressed in the world designing process, and were so left open-ended, to be designed later. For example, Will Turner is said to look like "the spitting image of" his father Bootstrap Bill in The Curse of the Black Pearl, but when Boostrap appeared for the first time in Dead Man's Chest the two Turners look nothing alike. In addition, Jack Sparrow's compass led only to Isla de Muerta in The Curse of the Black Pearl, while the compass led to whatever its user wanted most in sequels following Dead Man's Chest. Such small changes usually don't change much of the original story. However, Dead Man's Chest revealed that Jack Sparrow bartered the compass from Tia Dalma, whereas Dead Men Tell No Tales developed another origin story and purpose of Jack's compass, which seemingly retcons the previous stories. Amongst the Pirates fandom, the original trilogy as well as the fourth film had less continuity issues than the fifth film.

Websites

Only the official websites, like DisneyPirates.com, are canon to the Pirates franchise. Fan-made websites, like KeepToTheCode.com or The Legend of Pirates Online, although professionally made, are not officially sanctioned, and therefore non-canon. In addition, some of the film crew have shared their work and personal insight on the Pirates franchise their respective websites. For example, Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio's screenwriting website Wordplay as well as James Ward Byrkit's personal website were treated as reliable sources considered canonical due to providing behind-the-scenes information and trivia which may otherwise be inaccessible, similar to the audio commentaries. However, should the filmmakers in question be no longer associated with the Pirates franchise, such websites may not be considered canonical regarding the franchise moving forward.

Books

Reference books, guides, and magazines

Reference books are considered canon as they are officially published by Disney Editions or Disney Press and expand the stories from the films. That also includes the visual guides like DK Publishing's Pirates of the Caribbean: The Complete Visual Guide and POTC-related magazines published by Disney's divisions and subdivisions, which are filled with pictures, illustrations and loaded with behind-the-scenes information. However, they may still contain some inaccuracies. For example, the On Stranger Tides: The Visual Guide refers to Hector Barbossa as a "reborn admiral" rather than a "captain" like in the film, but those are usually minimal.

Movie storybooks and novelizations

Novelizations and movie storybooks retell the stories of the films, but often contain some additional scenes and/or details that do not appear in the final version of the film. As such, some details may contradict the movie canon because the books are often based on the earlier screenplay drafts. In that case, the movie canon overrides the novelization canon. Non-US adaptations of the novelizations may also contain additional info which can be compatible as long as it doesn't contradict the movies.

One example being that the merchant vessel from the opening of The Curse of the Black Pearl was named "Princess" according to the German version of the 2003 junior novelization by Wolfgang and Rebecca Hohlbein, whereas the ship's name was otherwise unidentified in the film-related media. A more contradictory example is the location of Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann's "one day" together shown in At World's End in comparison to the written description found in the Dead Men Tell No Tales novelization.

Novels

Books like the Rob Kidd young reader series Pirates of the Caribbean: Jack Sparrow and Legends of the Brethren Court chronicled the original adventures of young Jack Sparrow with stories set before the events depicted in the original Pirates trilogy. The first series followed teenage stowaway Jack Sparrow in stories that had yet to be told, whereas the second series retconned some of the details of the Brethren Court revealed in the At World's End DVD special feature Inside the Brethren Court, but not too much.

A. C. Crispin's Pirates of the Caribbean: The Price of Freedom is an original novel focusing on Jack Sparrow's backstory, which chronologically takes place in between the Jack Sparrow and Legends of the Brethren Court series. By the time Disney had approached Crispin for the book, the script for At World's End been written, the film was in production, and it was finishing up. Crispin was able to read the script and use it to write the story. It's also the first example of Disney deliberately telling the author not to follow the timeline established by the previous books. Despite that, The Price of Freedom was considered canon and all the continuity errors between the books can be logically explained.

The Brightest Star in the North: The Adventures of Carina Smyth provides the backstory for Carina Smyth. The final part of the book covers the events of the fifth film, though the content of many pages was copied from the novelization albeit just slightly expanded or shortened.

Comics

Comic book adaptations of the films simply retell the stories of the films, very often in much shorter form. Other comics contain original stories that mostly cover the events between the films. So far, only one of them openly contradicts the movie canon and book canon, the Disney Adventures comic The Buccaneer's Heart!.

Semi-canon

Disney Parks attractions and media

In 1955, Walt Disney opened Disneyland with pirates having a vital presence inside the enduring Peter Pan attraction, Peter Pan's Flight, based on Disney's 1953 animated film. Over the course of a decade, dozens of men and women at WED Enterprises (the precursor to Walt Disney Imagineering) would turn what began as a simple concept for a pirate wax museum into one of the most beloved theme park attractions of all time. In 1967, Pirates of the Caribbean opened as the last Disneyland attraction overseen by Walt Disney, with a television special airing in 1968. A variety of merchandise was released due to the popularity of the Disney attractions including souvenir books, toys, and clothing, among other things. In addition, there are also tie-in books like Climb Aboard if you Dare!: Stories from the Pirates of the Caribbean, published in 1996, which has since not been referenced anywhere in the franchise.

After the financial and critical success of The Curse of the Black Pearl in 2003, Imagineers revamped the ride across Disney Parks to feature the movie characters (e.g. Jack Sparrow and Hector Barbossa) to coincide with the release of Dead Man's Chest in 2006 as one way to better tie everything into into an emerging, overarching Pirates mythology. However, as with most Disney franchises, the park attractions do not fit within the movie universe. For example, Barbossa being captain of the Wicked Wench (replacing the original Pirate Captain) or wearing his privateer uniform. On the other hand, the original version of the Disney ride may be compatible with the movie universe, but it's very unlikely Disney would integrate its story because, in a way, The Curse of the Black Pearl already serves as the adaptation of the original Disneyland ride. Other global theme park attractions at Disney Parks, like The Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow at Disney's Hollywood Studios and Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for the Sunken Treasure at Shanghai Disneyland, also do not fit within the movie canon due to notable differences.

Real-world commentary

Directors, producers, actors, and screenwriters often reveal additional info regarding the Pirates of the Caribbean film(s) on the screenplay, characters, settings, etc. This is noted through commentaries with director Gore Verbinski, producer Jerry Bruckheimer, actor Johnny Depp, screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, among many others in DVD/Blu-ray releases, and continued throughout the Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise. Some information may be further continued in websites, such as Elliott and Rossio's Wordplay website, which sometimes references the same amount of information.

However, due to a lack of coordination between the various crew members, prop makers, and authors, from films to other related media, their statements can partly and sometimes even fully contradict the movie canon. In this case, what was originally intended in the writer's script may not always realized on screen, either because it's removed or because the director overrules it in favour of another interpretation. For example, according to directors Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg, nine or ten years have passed between the events of On Stranger Tides and Dead Men Tell No Tales, but the in-universe materials set the fifth film only one year after the fourth one. Generally, if the statements complement officially-released material, they can largely be considered canon.

Video games

Most of the video games adapt the stories of the films, and as such contain plenty of scenes which expand the original stories. However, they also contain scenes which directly contradict those stories. Two versions of the same game can also contradict each other. For example, in one version of the At World's End game Jack Sparrow saves Gentleman Jocard from an underground cave, but in another Jocard is imprisoned aboard Black Bart's ship. Therefore, most of the games belong to some sort of a grey area between canon and non-canon. Although most of the content featured in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow clearly contradicts the canon featured in The Curse of the Black Pearl, the events in the game are told through Jack's point of view and are purposefully false or exaggerated, and therefore the game may be considered canon to the overall franchise. The end of The Curse of the Black Pearl video game contradicts the movie canon, but the beginning of the game is compatible with canon as the story of Barbossa's mutiny has yet to be shown in the movie franchise. The 2003 Pirates of the Caribbean video game may likely be canon because it is a prequel and has not contradicted the movie canon so far. The game Pirates of the Caribbean Online is unofficially set between The Curse of the Black Pearl and Dead Man's Chest, and is generally considered canon. However, the fan-made recreation The Legend of Pirates Online is not canon due to it not being officially endorsed by Disney.

Deleted/Extended scenes

Like almost every film, the Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise has scenes cut from their respective films. There are various reasons why these scenes are deleted, including time constraints, not fitting into the flow of the story, a dropped story thread or simply alternative angles. A similar occurrence is off-screen, in which the events are unseen. A related term is extended scene, the longer version of a scene that was shortened for the final version of the film. In some cases, there were alternate versions of scenes that were considered, written or produced, but ultimately discarded in favour of another, though are generally considered to have no bearing on the canonical narrative. Often, extended scenes are included in collections of deleted scenes or are referred to as deleted scenes themselves, as is the case with, for instance, Dead Man's Chest and At World's End. However, even if the scenes never make it to the final cut of the film, they may still be retained in novelizations and reference books, among other creative material. At any rate, depending on if the scenes in question don't conflict with the movies, they may or may not be considered canon in the Pirates universe.

For example, "Begin To Forget" in Dead Man's Chest features Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) confronting his father Bootstrap Bill (Stellan Skarsgård) with dialogue that most likely remains canon. Off-screen examples include "Accepting The Proposal" in The Curse of the Black Pearl and "Salvation" in Dead Man's Chest, which both feature Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) and James Norrington (Jack Davenport). Extended scene examples include "Married To The Ship" with Will Turner and Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) playing two games of Liar's Dice in Dead Man's Chest, "The Coming Storm" between Tia Dalma (Naomie Harris) and Hector Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) talking about their accord, as well as "It's Just Good Business" and "The Thing You Want Most" between Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) and Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander) aboard the Endeavour in At World's End. Other scenes, such as alternative versions, despite appearing in official media, are most likely considered non-canon. "If You Believe Such Things" in Dead Man's Chest featured Joshamee Gibbs (Kevin R. McNally) in Dead Man's Chest saying dialogue that would be reused later by Tia Dalma in At World's End. "The Map Is Finished" in Dead Man's Chest featured Beckett promoting Norrington to the rank of admiral and giving him back his old ceremonial sword, which would directly contradict the scene where Norrington receives the sword from Beckett in At World's End, which takes place about two months later. The "Swann Song" deleted scene in At World's End is notably non-canon due to Governor Weatherby Swann (Jonathan Pryce) learning about the secret behind Davy Jones' heart after boarding the Flying Dutchman, whereas the final cut of the film reveals Governor Swann learned it beforehand. A more questionable example is the extended scene "Tango" in On Stranger Tides, which features the ring Jack Sparrow stole from Tia Dalma in Dead Man's Chest and returned in the dancing scene with Angelica (Penélope Cruz), in that the ring still switches from Jack's hand to Angelica's hand in On Stranger Tides following the dance scene.

Non-canon

Cancelled materials

Some materials were planned but only partly finished, before they were completely abandoned. Therefore, while they are part of the official Pirates franchise, they are not part of the official Pirates universe, and are non-canon. The most notable example was Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned, a video game in development that was cancelled months before its original 2011 release.

Screenplay drafts

The early drafts of a film's screenplay is just the beginning of a work, sometimes long before the studio greenlights the film and production starts. More often than not, the script goes through several rewrites before the final version of the story is accepted. Early drafts usually contain content that may get discarded along the way, which makes them non-canon. Even the late production drafts may provide some contradiction to the final product, like how Davy Jones was described as having eyes that are "dark" or "black" whereas actor Bill Nighy has blue eyes. Terry Rossio's screenplay for Dead Men Tell No Tales, which differs greatly from the final cut of the film, is notable for being set aside long before production began.

Miscellaneous

Beginning in the 1920s, pirates have played a key role in the storytelling of The Walt Disney Company and has appeared in every form of Disney entertainment: cartoon shorts, films, television shows, books, comics, music, merchandise, and theme parks. Walt Disney Imagineering, both the practice and practitioners, was born of the film industry, and the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction itself was inspired in part by such legendary Hollywood epics as the Errol Flynn film Captain Blood and Walt Disney's first fully live-action film based on Robert Louis Stevenson's classic novel Treasure Island. According to Imagineer Xavier Atencio, the classic phrase "Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum" (from the sea shanty found in Treasure Island) was a big part of the inspiration for "Yo Ho (A Pirate's Life for Me)". Pirates of the Caribbean followed Disney's animated film based on J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan as well as preceding many others, like the 1968 film Blackbeard's Ghost. The Haunted Mansion was also developed at the same time as Pirates of the Caribbean by the same group of Imagineers, and because of this, there are many connections between the two attractions. Likewise, while developing Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl as an homage to the popular Disney ride, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and Gore Verbinski also noted being inspired by pirate movies like Treasure Island and Flynn's Captain Blood, as well as Burt Lancaster's The Crimson Pirate and Douglas Fairbanks' The Black Pirate. While production designer Brian Morris pored over paintings from the time period, Dariusz Wolski and Verbinski spent as much time as possible looking at old pirate movies and studying story elements and visual aspects of great adventure films. For the fourth Pirates film, screenwriter Terry Rossio said Tim Powers' 1987 novel On Stranger Tides was "a huge inspiration for new characters, theme, settings, and basic story." However, none of these materials originated as part of the Pirates franchise, which makes them non-canon in the Pirates franchise.

Kingdom Hearts II, Kingdom Hearts III, LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game, Disney Infinity, and Sea of Thieves are video games which "borrow" and adapt the POTC content for their own universes. Therefore, the games are canon for their respective franchises, but they are non-canon for the Pirates franchise.

The Disney Adventures comic The Buccaneer's Heart! is set between the events of The Curse of the Black Pearl and Dead Man's Chest, but the appearance of Blackbeard's ghost contradicts Blackbeard being alive in the fourth film On Stranger Tides, which therefore makes the comic considered non-canon.

See also

• Retcon
• Fanon
• Continuity errors
• Historical inaccuracies

External links

• Canon on Wikipedia
• Expanded universe on Wikipedia