He secretly loves the governor's daughter, Elizabeth Swann (played by Keira Knightley and Lucinda Dryzek), although he occupies a lower social class than she does.

He marries Elizabeth Swann in At World's End, and they have a son named Henry (played by Dominic Scott Kay, Lewis McGowan, and Brenton Thwaites).

Alongside Hector Barbossa, Turner serves as an additional foil to Jack Sparrow's character, taking the role of the straight man with his subdued, good-natured personality.

Will learns that his father was the pirate "Bootstrap Bill" Turner, who served aboard the Black Pearl when it was commanded by Captain Jack Sparrow.

Despite Sparrow's comments that Bootstrap was "a good man," Will remains deeply conflicted over the fact that his father was a pirate.

For aiding Jack Sparrow's escape, Will and Elizabeth are arrested just prior to their wedding ceremony by Lord Cutler Beckett, a man made wealthy and powerful by profits from the East India Trading Company.

Jack seeks out Tia Dalma, a voodoo priestess who takes a particular interest in Will, proclaiming he has a "touch of destiny."

Sparrow had once struck a bargain with Davy Jones to raise the Black Pearl from the ocean bottom and to make Jack captain for 13 years.

Will, now an indentured sailor aboard Jones' ghost ship, meets his father "Bootstrap" Bill Turner.

When Will challenges Davy Jones to Liar's Dice, betting his soul against the key to the Dead Man's Chest, Bootstrap joins in and purposely loses to save his son from eternal enslavement.

With Bootstrap's help, Will steals the key from Jones and escapes in a longboat, vowing to one day free his father.

Will survives and stows back aboard the Dutchman, now headed for Isla Cruces where the Dead Man's Chest containing Jones' heart is buried.

They attempt bargain with Sao Feng, the Pirate Lord of the South China Sea, for the navigational charts leading to World's End and Davy Jones' Locker, so that they can rescue Jack Sparrow.

Ostensibly, the group's mission is to rescue Jack Sparrow from the Locker, but, like the others, Will has a secret motive: to retrieve the Black Pearl and free his father from Davy Jones.

And though he now understands why Elizabeth has been distant and despondent, she believes that her unrelenting guilt over causing Sparrow's doom is her burden alone to bear.

Feng then offers Barbossa the Black Pearl in exchange for Elizabeth, who he mistakenly believes is the sea goddess, Calypso.

Still plotting to obtain the Pearl, Will leaves a trail of bodies for Lord Beckett to follow to Shipwreck Cove, the Brethren Court stronghold.

Elizabeth tells Will she now understands the burden he bears, but having been aboard the Dutchman, she believes Bootstrap can no longer be saved, although Will disagrees.

When Barbossa releases Calypso from her human form, Will tells her that Davy Jones betrayed her to the First Brethren Court.

Orlando Bloom reprises his role as Will Turner in the fifth film, seen with barnacles forming upon his face, implying he's failing at the responsibilities as Captain of the Flying Dutchman.

Nine years later, Jack Sparrow recruits Henry, his small crew, a girl named Carina Smyth (who is secretly the daughter of Barbossa) and Barbossa to help him find the Trident of Poseidon, the destruction of the Trident breaking all curses imposed by the sea, including the curse that binds Will to the Dutchman.

In the post-credits sequence, Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann are asleep when their bedroom is entered by the shadow of an apparently resurrected Davy Jones.

Although the post-credits scene of Dead Men Tell No Tales featured Will Turner having a dream of Davy Jones seemingly resurrected from the dead, directors Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg confirmed the scene was meant to "pay respect to a legendary villain in the franchise" as well as be a tease or hint that it could be the "beginning of the end" or "just a dream or nightmare".

Crispin Freeman provided the voice of Will for the U.S. version of the game since Orlando Bloom was unavailable due to the filming of Dead Man's Chest and At World's End.

In the earlier versions of the game, Will urges the player to run and locate Tia Dalma after soldiers can be heard banging on his door.

[8] Described as the "traditional Errol Flynn type" of character compared to Johnny Depp's Keith Richards-inspired portrayal of Jack Sparrow,[9] Will Turner was originally written as a prison guard who freed Sparrow to rescue Elizabeth Swann in early drafts of The Curse of the Black Pearl.

Actor Orlando Bloom, who took the role of Turner after playing Legolas in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, stated that he read the script after Geoffrey Rush, whom he was working with on Ned Kelly, suggested it to him.

Bloom alluded to his character's new "gnarly" appearance after taking over Davy Jones' post in At World's End, stating that it would be "fun to do something where I’m rumbling round the bottom of the ocean, because I won’t look anything like me.

"[19] Although it was announced as a supporting role, Bloom ultimately appeared as a cameo in Dead Men Tell No Tales, which was released in May 2017.