With his time as Billy Butcher on The Boys coming to an end this year, Karl Urban has an opportunity to find new recurring roles to headline the next chapter of his career. He’s doing that by playing Johnny Cage in Mortal Kombat II, which comes out in May after being pushed from its original 2025 release. But whether that becomes a long-running role for him remains to be seen.
Over the years, Urban has proven he’s at his best with action and comedy, with The Boys‘ vulgar and gory world feeling like an especially great fit for the New Zealand actor. And after already having secondary parts in big franchises like The Lord of the Rings and the MCU, it’s his next film that looks like his audition to join one of Disney’s biggest IPs.
Karl Urban Should Join Pirates Of The Caribbean After The Bluff
On February 26, Urban will headline a new Prime Video movie, The Bluff, produced by the Russo brothers and co-starring Priyanka Chopra. The current The Boys star is the villain as he plays a 19th-century pirate captain.
Amazon debuted the first trailer for it a few weeks back, and one of the biggest impressions it left me with is how perfectly Urban feels as a pirate. There’s just something right about him with slicked back hair, a full beard, and wearing a pirate costume. The blood and profanity The Bluff‘s R-rating allows is also fitting for him after all the years of playing Billy.
While those elements are not present in Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean movies, I can’t stop thinking about how great Urban would be in those movies now. He’s got the perfect look and the exact right comedic/action abilities to slide effortlessly into that world. That’s always been the case, and now The Bluff is his practically an unofficial audition tape.
The Pirates franchise has been struggling to figure out its direction over the last several years. Margot Robbie’s reboot cooled during development, and a sixth installment with Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow also hasn’t made much progress.
There’s no telling what the next movie will look like or when it will come at this stage, only that the studio will certainly find a way to bring back its $4.5 billion franchise at some point.
But, once the tides change and Disney charts a course for the next Pirates of the Caribbean, finding a role for Karl Urban should be a priority. Whether that’d come as a completely new hero, another pirate villain role, or even taking over as Jack Sparrow if Depp is recast, I have no doubt that he’d be an excellent and exciting addition to this series.
- Release Date
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February 25, 2026
- Runtime
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101 Minutes
- Director
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Frank E. Flowers
