People are horrified to learn Keira Knightley’s real age in the Pirates of the Caribbean

The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise propelled Keira Knightley into a new level of stardom - but fans are just realising (and are shocked to discover) her age at the time.

The British actress played the adventurous Elizabeth Swann in the popular action films and starred alongside A-listers Johnny Depp who played Captain Jack Sparrow and Orlando Bloom as William Turner.

There are five films in the franchise, with the first Pirates Of The Caribbean - The Curse Of The Black Pearl released back in 2003.

That's more than two decades ago, and it was a completely different world back then.

Many of us would have watched the film on DVD or video (if not in the cinema), not on a streaming service such as Netflix like we do today, nor did we have social media to instantly connect with people.

Meanwhile at this time, the film was a roaring success at the box office as it grossed $654 million worldwide and kicked off the franchise.

Knightley starring alongside Orlando Bloom in the first movieDisney

Of course, Knightley's performance was one of the factors behind the film's popularity and what's even more impressive is how young she was at the time this occurred.

Knightley was just 17 years old when she shot the first movie, and fans can't quite believe it.

On X, formerly Twitter, one person wrote: "To this day I still REFUSE to believe that Keira Knightley was only 17 when she filmed the 1st pirates of the Caribbean movie..."

"Keira Knightley was 17 IN THE FIRST PIRATES MOVIE ARE YOU ACTUALLY S****ING ME???" another person posted.

A third person added: "Keira Knightley was 17 in the first Pirates of the Caribbean........ what."

"You ever come across a fact or statement you know to be 100 per cent true... but you still don’t believe it. For me it’ll always be the fact that: Keira Knightley was only 17 yrs old when filming the first Pirates of the Caribbean!" a fourth person commented:

Someone else posted: "The fact Keira Knightley gave us these two iconic characters in the same year WHILE SHE WAS ONLY 17," referring to the fact that in the same year Knightley had also starred in the popular rom-com Love Actually.

Speaking to Variety in 2016, Knightley revealed how skyrocketing to fame at a young age impacted her.

"I found it pretty horrific. I’m not an extrovert, so I found that level of scrutiny and that level of fame really hard," she admitted.

"It was an age where you are becoming, you haven’t become, and you need to make mistakes. It’s a very precarious age, particularly for women.

"You’re in some ways still a child. It was traumatic, but it set up the rest of my career."

While she has been candid about her struggles, Knightley later reflected in 2018 how she's "unbelievably lucky now" and says her career "is in a place where I really enjoy it, and I have a level of fame that’s much less intense."

"I can deal with it now, and that’s great. But at the time, it was not so great, and took many years of therapy to figure it out."

Elsewhere, there have been whispers about a potential Pirates reboot - no doubt fans would love to see Knightley reprise her role.

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