Will Turner



Will Turner, full name William Turner Jr., is a fictional character in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series. He is played by Orlando Bloom, and is also one of the main characters. Will is a blacksmith's apprentice working in Port Royal. He is in love with Elizabeth Swann the governor's daughter, a woman he can never hope to attain due to his inferior social rank. Will is the best swordsman in the trilogy, although he lacks actual experience compared to swordsmen like Jack Sparrow, who understands that there are no rules when fighting for one's life. Although mild-mannered, Will is fiercely loyal to those he cares about and would risk everything when they, especially Elizabeth, are in danger. At his best, Will is clever, heroic and courageous. He can also be preoccupied and brooding.

Character history
Apparently, Will Turner is a character created by some writer who sent his script to Disney but was rejected. Like Jack Sparrow and Elizabeth Swann, the other two principal heroes of the saga, Will's name is linked to birds. Whereas the others are more direct references, Will is named after the ornithologist William Turner. However, the captain of the doomed RMS Lusitania, torpedoed by a German U-boat off the coast of Ireland in 1915, was also named William Turner.

Appearance
Will's final costume in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is reminiscent of Errol Flynn. (Another nod to Errol Flynn is when Turner uses his knife to glide down the sail of a ship in Dead Man's Chest. (Douglas Fairbanks also used a knife to slide down a sail in his film The Black Pirate)).

In Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl when he and Jack are fighting in the blacksmith's shop, you get a glimpse of Orlando Bloom's tattoo on his wrist (Elvish word for "nine" from The Lord of the Rings) when he says "I practice three hours a day, so that when I meet a pirate, I can kill him!" Nowhere in the movies is told that Will is free of tattoos so it's possible that Will also have this tattoo (althought for him it's just a pretty pattern.)

Early Life
Will is the only child of the pirate, William "Bootstrap Bill" Turner. According to Jack Sparrow, he strongly resembles his father, both in appearance and physical ability. However, his father was absent during his childhood in England, and Will grew up believing him to be a merchant seaman. After his mother's death, Will, age 12, journeyed to the Caribbean to search for his father. However, his ship was attacked and sunk by the Black Pearl, the same pirate ship his father once served on and is now under the command of Captain Barbossa. Soon after Turner teams up with his nemesis, Jack Sparrow, he learns from Sparrow that his father was actually a pirate, but also a good man.