Making Old Stars New Again

When a young version of Johnny Depp’s zany Jack Sparrow appears in a flashback in Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales — which topped the North American box office this weekend with an estimated $77 million debut — it became the latest example of the use of digital effects to “de-age” an actor for the purpose of having him or her appear in a flashback.

Moviegoers saw another example just a few weeks ago, when Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 introduced a young Kurt Russell as his character, Ego. Disney/Marvel is clearly comfortable with taking this route, as it’s also brought audiences a young version of Michael Douglas in Ant-Man and Robert Downey Jr. in Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Read the rest of this article at The Hollywood Reporter.


Johnny Depp first appeared as Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.