10 Movie Sequels That Lost The Main Characters

6. Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Who Disappeared? Elizabeth Swann & Will Turner (Keira Knightley & Orlando Bloom)

You could be forgiven for believing Disney's shtick that the Pirates franchise is a star vehicle for Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow, but it wasn't really to begin with. He just became more heavily featured as his popularity grew. Initially, the first trilogy was as much about Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann as it was about Sparrow - in fact, they were arguably even more important to the established lore - but when the time came for a fourth movie, they'd been dropped entirely.

Instead, Jack Sparrow became the ascended lead, with support from Barbosa, Penelope Cruz's Angelica and Sam Claflin's dull-as-dish-water Philip Swift.

Why They Didn't Return

Depp only agreed to return if he liked the script (and was given a hefty $55.5m for doing so), but both Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley chose to sit the fourth chapter out, with both reportedly keen to go on and take different roles as they wanted new challenges.

They were replaced with spiritual copycats (Claflin's pastor and a mermaid) and everyone else simply didn't talk about them. Until the fifth film, when their desire to move away from the characters clearly waned and they came back.