Pirates of the Caribbean: What Happened To Elizabeth After At World’s End

Elizabeth (Keira Knightley) reunites with Will (Orlando Bloom) at the conclusion of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, but her absence from Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides leaves a large period of time in her life unaccounted for. The Pirates of the Caribbean series is centered around the supernatural misadventures of the frequently-inebriated Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp), but the original trilogy also made a point of contrasting his slapstick character with the romantic leads of Elizabeth Swann and Will Turner.

Beginning as a reluctant socialite, Elizabeth experiences a more drastic character arc than any of the other leads, her experiences at sea necessitating that she become increasingly adept at navigating the cutthroat, self-sufficient world of piracy. This culminates in her appointment to the Brethren Court and participation in the defeat of Cutler Beckett’s (Tom Hollander) armada, but even these accomplishments cannot prevent the death of Will, her newlywed husband, at the hands of Davy Jones (Bill Nighy). Will is ultimately revived by his father “Bootstrap” Bill (Stellan Skarsgård) and Jack Sparrow, but as a consequence he is bound to serve eternally as the captain of the Flying Dutchman, leaving Elizabeth to guard the Dead Man’s Chest that holds his heart and raise their child, Henry, alone.

The next time Elizabeth is seen, she is tending to and living in a lighthouse in Jamaica, having led a secluded life until her son’s destruction of the Trident of Poseidon allowed Will to return. Although Dead Men Tell No Tales shows very little of this part of her life, it looks as though she has maintained the retirement from piracy that she took after the events of At World’s End. She seems to have left the social connections of her (original) past life behind as well, as Henry does not seem to have received any special treatment when he joined the British Royal Navy despite being the grandson of a governor. This may be due in part to her marriage to Will, which, in addition to being difficult to legally verify, would be a socially downward move.

But if Elizabeth eschewed proper English society, she had an even more important position to consider when abandoning her past. After being made Pirate Lord of the South China Sea by Captain Sao Feng (Chow Yun-Fat), Elizabeth was elected Pirate King of the Brethren Court through the unexpected support of Jack Sparrow. This was not insignificant, as she was only the second person to hold the title in the organization’s history. It’s unclear what her exact responsibilities in this capacity would be, but given her ability to launch the pirates of the Seven Seas into a war against the East India Trading Company, one can assume that they were considerable. However, no earthshaking nautical events look to have affected the world of Dead Men Tell No Tales, so it is likely that the Brethren Court was not called again following the War Against Piracy, or perhaps Elizabeth abdicated her throne.

By most estimations, the Pirates of the Caribbean films seem to have paid little mind to what Elizabeth did after At World’s End, instead choosing to focus on the continued exploits of Jack Sparrow. But if reports questioning his role in the sixth movie are accurate, there may be more room for neglected characters in future storylines. Hopefully, now that she has been reintroduced and her family reunited, the series will take the opportunity to focus more on the incredible power and experience that Elizabeth possesses beyond just her roles as a mother and a wife.