This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost Australia, which closed in 2021.

Keira Knightley Almost Wasn't In 'Pirates Of The Caribbean 5'

Keira Knightley Almost Wasn't In 'Pirates Of The Caribbean 5'

It seems it almost wasn’t a “Pirates” life for Keira Knightley.

Brenton Thwaites, who plays Henry Turner in “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales,” recently chatted with HuffPost about what it’s like to play the son of Orlando Bloom’s Will Turner and Keira Knightley’s Elizabeth Swann. He also shed some light on Knightley’s big return.

The actor told us, “It’s kind of an honor to play a Turner. I’ve watched all their stuff together since the first movie, and they’ve always had such a great banter and wonderful chemistry with each other.”

Fans were especially excited about the chance to see that chemistry again when it got out that Knightley would appear in the film. Images of the actress, which first showed up in the international trailer, instantly went viral. Since then, the cast has been pretty forthcoming about Knightley’s appearance, with Bloom openly talking about sharing the screen again with his “Pirates” co-star on the red carpet.

Disney and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales - Official International Trailer 2

Still, her return apparently wasn’t always a lock. As Thwaites remembers it, the Knightley scene wasn’t in the original script.

“I believe it was added after. I’m not sure, but I believe it was added after,” Thwaites told HuffPost, saying the part with Elizabeth Swann was shot “14 or 15 months after principal photography.”

“It was a long gap between finishing production and doing the reshoots was that little segment,” said Thwaites. “I had already shot my biggest scenes with Orlando, so we already had our moment, and our story had come to an end, and we kind of [closed] that chapter and had our climactic moment.”

(HuffPost reached out to screenwriter Terry Rossio about the moment and will update this story accordingly.)

Knightley previously said she wasn’t going to appear in another “Pirates” movie, which could explain why Elizabeth Swann supposedly wasn’t included in the initial script. But what changed her mind?

Perhaps she just missed life on the high seas. Or, as we speculated before, the actress probably stole a piece of cursed Aztec gold and got pulled into the role while trying to return it to the “Pirates” set. Who knows?

However it happened, we’re glad she’s back. Swann’s inclusion is without a doubt one of the best parts of the movie, and it may play a role in where the franchise goes from here.

Thwaites told us he’d like to see his character have “a bit more material with Elizabeth Swann” in future “Pirates” films.

“I didn’t really have that much with Elizabeth Swann, Keira’s character, but I would like to see a bit more of that because it feels like the start of something new,” he said, “and there’s kind of a lot of possibility at the end of the movie. It feels like it will go somewhere.”

If we had a magical compass that pointed to what we wanted most, it’d be more Elizabeth Swann, too.