Credit: DisneyThe Pirates of the Caribbean is one of Disney’s biggest franchises ever. It turned Johnny Depp into a blockbuster cartoon of an actor, has produced five movies so far, and is doing its best to relaunch with Margot Robbie, Dwayne Johnson, or whoever will have it as a new star.
However, according to pirate expert Iszi Lawrence, there is one aspect of nautical history that Pirates of the Caribbean got pretty terribly wrong: Edward Teach, AKA Blackbeard.
Blackbeard, the real-life historical pirate captain, appeared in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011), portrayed by Ian McShane, who has never found an elaborately costumed role he would turn down. The man has been in everything from Game of Thrones to Deadwood to John Wick, and casting him as the most fearsome and legendary pirate of all time must have seemed like a no-brainer.
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While Ian McShane cannot be faulted for his interpretation of Edward Teach, who spends the movie pursuing the Fountain of Youth alongside Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz, Iszi Lawrence has some bones to pick about Pirates of the Caribbean‘s portrayal of Blackbeard in an episode of History Hit.
For starters, one of the central plot points of On Stranger Tides is Penelope Cruz’s Angelica being the daughter of Blackbeard, but Lawrence says, “We don’t know if Blackbeard had a daughter. There’s references to the fact he did. He certainly had more than one wife because he’d have a wife in each port, so the likelihood is that he’d have kids, whether he acknowledged them or not is another matter. But I don’t think this is quite the right age range because he’d have been about 38 when he died, and I don’t think he was having kids when he was ten years old.”
Pirates of the Caribbean also portrayed Blackbeard as a man most willing to betray others if it served his goals, but Lawrence goes on to explain, “Blackbeard is seen as being treacherous, and that’s what kills him, so he deserves it really. When actually Blackbeard nearly destroys the man who came to kill him in his boat and jumps aboard thinking that the crew he’s just broadsided are dead, but actually are hiding. So actually, it’s Maynard who was the treacherous one in the capture of Blackbeard, and he fought nobly to the death and then had his head cut off.”
If anything, we should count ourselves lucky that Pirates of the Caribbean got even some surface aspects of Blackbeard correct. Lawrence says it’s accurate that he wore his hair in braids, but also, “Blackbeard was 38 when he died, and life has not been kind to Ian McShane here, he is far too old here… He has wonderfully got his hair in braids, that is accurate. He is all wearing black, which also is accurate… He has not got the brace of pistols on, which is fair enough. But he would have had a brace with four loaded pistols on him to be as scary as possible. Also, he had red ribbons in his beard as well, to be ultra scary.”
For the record, Ian McShane was 69 years old in 2011.
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Now, we don’t expect Pirates of the Caribbean to be a historical document or anything, but we hoped that the Jerry Bruckheimer series could at least get some aspects of an incredibly famous figure from history correct. Disney isn’t going to lure Margot Robbie to the franchise with that kind of fact-checking.
Are you ready for Margot Robbie or Dwayne Johnson to take Pirates of the Caribbean over from Johnny Depp? Let us know in the comments below!