8 Deleted Movie Scenes That Completely Change Classic Characters

8. Captain Jack Sparrow: Hero Of Slaves - Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End

Pirates of the Caribbean is definitely the best franchise to have ever been inspired by a ride from the '60s, and Johnny Depp's performance as the swaggering Captain Jack Sparrow has a lot to do with that. Everyone loves Jack because he isn't defined by a moral code; he does whatever wants, and screw the consequences!

Which is presumably why a deleted scene that revealed Jack to be a slave-friendly martyr was ultimately cut from the third film: it made Sparrow too heroic.

In said scene, loathsome villain Cutler Beckett reveals that he once paid Jack to transport 100 slaves. Jack refused to do it, so Beckett burnt his ship, branded him a "pirate," and that's your neat little origin story. Beckett proceeds to ask why Jack didn't do what he asked, to which Sparrow replies: "People ain't cargo, mate."

It's arguably the only moment in the series where Johnny Depp stops acting like Keith Richards and delivers a line with genuine sincerity. But nobody wanted that, did they? No. They wanted hammy line-readings and jokes about finding the rum, apparently, not some idealistic hero who fights for racial equality.