If you saw Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, you may have been left wondering what the deal was with the scene that happened after the credits rolled. If that’s the case, read on.

[Spoilers ahead for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales]

So the way the Pirates mythology works is that at the end of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, that film’s villain, Davy Jones (Bill Nighy), supposedly died after Jack (Johnny Depp), Elizabeth (Keira Knightley), and Will (Orlando Bloom) stabbed his beating heart and he fell into the maelstrom. However, Will was mortally wounded, and the only way to save him was to have his own heart cut out and put into the Dead Man’s Chest, which made him immortal, but also cursed him to captain the Flying Dutchman and return to dry land once every ten years (the Gore Verbinski Pirates movies are delightfully nuts).

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Image via Disney

The set up for Dead Men Tell No Tales is that Will’s son (briefly seen as a young boy in the post-credits scene for At World’s End), Henry (Brenton Thwaites), wants to break that curse by wielding the Trident of Poseidon. He eventually gets it, breaks it, and then breaks all sea-related curses, thus freeing his dad.

In the post-credits scene, Will is sleeping next to Elizabeth when a shadowy figure enters their bedroom. The silhouette belongs to Davy Jones. He raises up his claw threateningly and then Will awakens, considering what he just experienced to be nothing more than a nightmare. He turns to go back to sleep, the camera pans down, and we can see some water and some barnacles at the foot of the bed, hinting that Davy Jones lives.

Does that mean Davy Jones will be the villain of the next Pirates’ movie? Rather than tell new stories, Dead Men Tell No Tales indicates that what audiences want is a long-running mythology. They want things from previous movies to pay off even if that story has already been completed. Will’s fate seemed pretty much sealed, but then the filmmakers decided, “What if there was a magic trident that could reverse it!” So we shouldn’t be too surprised if Davy Jones returns, especially if the Dutchman now has no captain.

What did you think of the post-credits scene? Do you want to see Davy Jones come back or would you like to see the Pirates franchise continue in a different direction (if at all)? Sound off in the comments section.

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Image via Disney
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Image via Disney

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