Star Wars: Is Hondo Ohnaka Based On Jack Sparrow?
"Star Wars: The Clone Wars" serves as a showcase for numerous franchise newcomers, from scheming senators to one-off Jedi. A few of these characters have earned a place within the fandom as favorites, with Hondo Ohnaka (Jim Cummings) standing among the most adored. The wily Weequay space pirate first appears during Season 1's "Dooku Captured" and goes on to have a pretty solid run on the program. He later appears on "Star Wars Rebels" and can be seen in animatronic form at the Galaxy's Edge Disney Parks attraction.
Though he's widely adored for who he is, some can't help but feel that Hondo isn't a fully original character. His appearance, profession, and love of money and good times have drawn comparisons between him and "Pirates of the Caribbean" icon Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp). For instance, Redditors u/Roaring_Pillow and u/samzyistra1604 have put the two flamboyant pirate captains side-by-side, with numerous folks on the social media site chiming in to agree with the comparison and express their love for both.
Despite their similarities in terms of behavior and appearance, no one on the "Clone Wars" team has outright stated that Hondo was directly inspired by Captain Jack. While it's certainly a possibility that this is the case, when comparing their actions, one is considerably more ruthless and leans into villain territory more so than the other.
Hondo is a bit darker of a character than Captain Jack
It's no secret throughout the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies that Jack Sparrow isn't a great guy. He lies, he largely kills out of necessity, and he tends to only look out for himself, but there's more to him than that. Time and time again, he shows that he has a heart of gold deep down and that he's willing to make sacrifices if it means helping the people he cares about. It's one of the many personality traits that makes Jack such an endearing character. Hondo Ohnaka is a decent person with a big heart as well, but the skeletons in his closet come from much more heinous acts.
The big difference between the Hondo seen on "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" and Jack in "Pirates of the Caribbean" is that the former has a tendency to do bad things purely for the sake of doing them. For example, in the "Clone Wars" episode titled "Bound for Rescue," Hondo and his crew are visited by a traveling circus act known as Preigo's Traveling World of Wonder. It's revealed in the episode that during one of their performances, Hondo wasn't happy with what he saw. Thus, he had the performers involved in the act beheaded. Even for a pirate captain, killing for fun is a bit much.
One could easily say that Hondo Ohnaka is simply Jack Sparrow through a "Star Wars" filter, but that's not quite the case. Sure, they're similar in more ways than one, but the more you learn about them, the less alike they seem.