Commander Norrington was a memorable ing star in the first three installments of the The Ring helmer Gore Verbinski. An instant classic, The Curse of the Black Pearl won over audiences and critics alike with its swashbuckling action, witty dialogue, and surprisingly effective scares.
Inspired by everything from Jaws to Indiana Jones, the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie was a huge hit that led to immediate fan demand for a sequel. The first sequel was released in 2006 and, although it received markedly more mixed reviews than the original movie, Dead Man’s Chest was a huge success at the box office. The third movie in the original Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, At World’s End, was released a year later, bringing back the primary cast of the first two movies for a final wrap-up.
However, not everyone was originally intended to make it into the cast list of the second and third movies in the series. When the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise first started, Jack Davenport's James Norrington was originally only supposed to be in The Curse of the Black Pearl, and losing Elizabeth to Will at the film’s close was meant to spell an end to his character’s screen career. However, franchise producer Jerry Bruckheimer had a lot of respect for Davenport and the unexpectedly positive response that his character had gained from test audiences. As a result, the producer gave him expanded roles in the next two movies of the series, and the franchise provided the character with a pretty compelling arc in the process.
Although the first movie’s Norrington is an insufferable by-the-book military man, Davenport gives him a surprising depth and makes the potentially cartoonish figure surprisingly involving, particularly in his last scene wherein he accepts that Elizabeth has chosen Will over him. Throughout the sequels, he falls into disgrace and eventually becomes the lackey of trilogy villain Cutler Beckett before betraying the baddie and sacrificing himself to save Elizabeth and her crew. Each Pirates of the Caribbean sequel had its problems, but Norrington’s character evolution is one of the more positive instances of a character growing more complex and interesting as the series progresses.
Since ending his Pirates of the Caribbean franchise tenure in 2007, Davenport has gone on to appear in the later blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean reboot should revisit to give the new movies the same urgency and subtle historical commentary as the original trilogy.
