Captain Jack Sparrow always turns up in the unlikeliest of places, but this is a first!

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Fans of the beloved adventure game series, “Monkey Island” were delighted when Lucasfilm announced the return of the beloved franchise, aptly named, “Return to Monkey Island”. With many of the principle voice actors returning to the Disney-owned franchise, including Dominic Armato as the chief protagonist, and the original creator, Ron Gilbert, many fans were excited to see where this latest installment would take our heroes next!

One thing no one was expecting, however, was a reference to one of Johnny Depp‘s most beloved characters, Captain Jack Sparrow. Ever since The Washington Post Op-Ed published by Amber Heard in 2018, relations between Disney and Depp have been rocky, to say the least. Depp’s legal team has even stated that the actor lost out on $22.5 million because of the scandal. Disney was quick to sever ties with Depp, as was Warner Bros. which distributes the Harry Potter spinoff series, the Fantastic Beasts franchise. But, this new reference may speak to his return to the world of pirates — or at least acknowledge the actor and character’s survival at the House of Mouse.

Just like its predecessors, “Return” is a point-and-click adventure game, where the player must solve puzzles in order to beat the game. The Pirates of the Caribbean reference comes during one such puzzle, in which the protagonist, Guybrush Threepwood (Armato), is exploring the ‘Museum of Pirate Lore’ to find that it is filled with artifacts from his own previous adventures, basically a museum of easter eggs for die-hard fans!

Clicking on a coffin and oar hanging from the ceiling will prompt the curator of the museum to tell you how it was used by a “certain well-known captain” escaping a Turkish Prison. This gives players two fun references: the first, to Captain Jack Sparrow himself! Fans will remember the return of Captain Jack in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006), when he bursts out of a coffin offshore from a Turkish prison, before rowing back to the Black Pearl. The second is a great callback to the second installment of “Monkey”, “LeChuck’s Revenge”, in which Guybrush uses that very coffin to row back and forth from his objectives.

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With many rumors circulating about Depp’s return to the franchise, many fans are hopeful that nods like the one discussed in this article confirm those suspicions. You only have to look at other comparative actors, take Gina Carano, for example — there have been little to no references to Cara Dune in any Star Wars or Disney media since her firing from Lucasfilm last year, whereas Depp’s jaunty pirate consistently shows up on-screen, at the theme parks, and in games like these.

Will Johnny Depp return to Disney and Pirates and the Black Pearl? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!