Pirates of the Caribbean Characters

Pirates of the Caribbean has five main films and a large ensemble, but the story keeps coming back to a core group: Jack Sparrow, Hector Barbossa, Will Turner, Elizabeth Swann, Joshamee Gibbs and Davy Jones. The saga grew out of the Disneyland attraction that debuted in 1967, and the films run from The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), directed by Gore Verbinski, to Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017), directed by Espen Sandberg and Joachim Rønning. For full cast lists, see Pirates of the Caribbean cast, and for the films themselves, start with the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

The main character is Captain Jack Sparrow, played by Johnny Depp, who is billed first in all five films. That being said, the first film builds its story around Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann, with Jack arriving in Port Royal as an eccentric pirate looking for a ship, so the series starts as an ensemble and then bends toward him. The question of which movies are about Jack Sparrow has a short answer, because he leads every one of them, from The Curse of the Black Pearl to Dead Men Tell No Tales. If you want them in sequence, the Pirates of the Caribbean movies in order guide lays it out.

The core six are the characters who carry the most weight across the saga, and each has a page of their own.

• Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp): the pirate who arrives in Port Royal in the first film looking for a ship, and who by the second film owes a debt to Davy Jones.
• Hector Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush): the captain of the cursed Black Pearl crew in the first film, credited as Barbossa early on and as Hector Barbossa from the fourth film, where he serves the British Crown.
• Will Turner (Orlando Bloom): the blacksmith who loves Elizabeth, rescued from a shipwreck as a boy, and the son of Bootstrap Bill. Bloom also returns in the fifth film.
• Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley): the governor's daughter who, as a child, secretly keeps the gold medallion Will was wearing.
• Joshamee Gibbs (Kevin McNally): the crewman who stays close to Jack in all five films, credited as Gibbs in the second and third.
• Davy Jones (Bill Nighy): the sea captain of the Flying Dutchman, who holds Jack's debt and keeps his heart in the Dead Man's Chest.

Two more captains have their own pages: Edward "Blackbeard" Teach and Armando Salazar.

Each film adds new names to the ensemble, each paired with the actor who plays it.

The fourth film is the answer to what Pirates of the Caribbean 4 is called: On Stranger Tides (2011), directed by Rob Marshall, set around 1750 and built around the race between Britain and Spain for the Fountain of Youth.

The captains who drive the plot are Jack Sparrow, Hector Barbossa, Davy Jones, Edward "Blackbeard" Teach and Armando Salazar, and each film pits Jack against at least one of them. Barbossa leads the cursed Black Pearl crew in the first film. Davy Jones commands the Flying Dutchman and sends the Kraken after those who owe him. Blackbeard, played by Ian McShane, sails the Queen Anne's Revenge and needs a ritual at the Fountain of Youth that calls for two silver chalices and a mermaid's tear. Salazar, played by Javier Bardem, is the undead captain of the ghost ship Silent Mary, who spares Henry Turner so he can warn Jack that Salazar is coming. Sao Feng, a pirate lord based in Singapore, holds the charts Jack's rescuers need in the third film. Captain Teague, played by Keith Richards, appears in the fourth.

The female characters include Elizabeth Swann, Tia Dalma, Angelica, Syrena, Carina Smyth and Shansa, and each gets a distinct role in her film. Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) appears in the first three films and the fifth. Tia Dalma (Naomie Harris) is the voodoo priestess Jack's crew turns to in the second film for help finding the chest that holds Davy Jones' heart. Angelica (Penélope Cruz) is Blackbeard's daughter and a former love of Jack's. Syrena (Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey) is the mermaid whose tear the Fountain ritual requires. Carina Smyth (Kaya Scodelario) is an astronomer who escapes execution on a witchcraft charge and carries a diary with clues to the Trident of Poseidon. Shansa (Golshifteh Farahani) is a sea witch who holds Jack's compass in the fifth film.

The male supporting characters split into pirates on one side and officials on the other. Norrington (Jack Davenport) is the navy officer who is promoted and proposes to Elizabeth in the first film. Governor Weatherby Swann (Jonathan Pryce) is her father. Lord Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander) of the East India Trading Company arrives in the second film with arrest warrants, and Mercer (David Schofield) appears alongside him in the second and third. Lt. Gillette (Damian O'Hare) serves in the first and fourth, and King George (Richard Griffiths) appears in the fourth. Scarfield (David Wenham) appears in the fifth. Henry Turner (Brenton Thwaites), Will's son, grows up determined to free his father using the Trident of Poseidon, and Philip (Sam Claflin) is the young missionary who falls for Syrena.

A handful of crew members turn up film after film, which gives the ensemble its familiar feel. Pintel (Lee Arenberg) and Ragetti (Mackenzie Crook) are a pair of pirates introduced in the first film and credited again through the third. Cotton (David Bailie) is part of Jack's crew in the first three films, and Marty (Martin Klebba) is credited in the second, third and fifth. Murtogg (Giles New) and Mullroy (Angus Barnett) are the Port Royal guards from the first film, and both return in the fifth. Scrum (Stephen Graham) turns up in the fourth and fifth films, and Bootstrap Bill (Stellan Skarsgård) is the cursed Flying Dutchman crewman who visits Jack in the second film.

The characters are fictional, so a search for their real names usually means the actors, and the main pairings are Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow, Geoffrey Rush as Barbossa, Orlando Bloom as Will Turner, Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Swann, Kevin McNally as Gibbs, Bill Nighy as Davy Jones, Naomie Harris as Tia Dalma, Ian McShane as Blackbeard and Jack Davenport as Norrington. Javier Bardem plays Salazar and Penélope Cruz plays Angelica. Billing order sets who is credited first in each film, with Johnny Depp leading the cast in all five, and the full credits are on the Pirates of the Caribbean cast page.

Yes, Davy Jones is a main character in Dead Man's Chest (2006) and At World's End (2007), played by Bill Nighy. He captains the Flying Dutchman, and the second film turns on Jack's debt to him and on the chest that holds his still beating heart. In the third film, Lord Beckett forces Jones to serve him and sink pirate ships. His ship and curse are covered in more depth on the Pirates of the Caribbean ships and Pirates of the Caribbean curses pages.

A sixth film is in development, with no release date and no confirmed cast. TheWrap reported on August 16, 2026 that producer Jerry Bruckheimer, speaking at D23, said the team is talking with Johnny Depp and working on a screenplay. The report says no cast or deal is confirmed, so the characters named across the saga all come from the five released films. For the latest on a sixth film, see Pirates of the Caribbean 6.