Walt Disney Pictures is about to get their new Blackbeard the Pirate; Ian McShane is in negotiations to star as the infamous pirate force in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, the fourth installment in their juggernaut franchise.

McShane would become the new villain in the movie, joining Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow and Geoffrey Rush as Captain Barbossa. Penélope Cruz was also recently added to the cast, but details are not known as to who exactly she will play aside from the basic description of being Sparrow’s “foil and equal in many ways.”

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides will pick up from where Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End teased us at the end: with the pursuit of the mysterious and elusive Fountain of Youth. It will also be based loosely on the Tim Powers novel, On Stranger Tides, which happened to be a very similar story to the one the wanted to tell, so the rights to the novel were acquired.

There’s no question that fans of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise are strongly skeptical of director Rob Marshall taking over as director from Gore Verbinski on Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Marshall is best known as someone who makes popular musicals like Chicago and Nine, but not so much someone who can rock the action-fantasy chords.

Whether Marshall delivers us another great time at the movies or not, he is using his standing to sway possible new talents. The trades have heard word that Penélope Cruz — star of Marshall’s latest musical, Nine — is in negotiations to star in the fourth installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.

It’s been sheer chaos in the world of Disney lately. It began with a ton of exciting announcements out of the D23 Expo, but was capped off with the shocking news that long time and much-loved Chairman Dick Cook was leaving, most likely due to being fired (Read: Unexpected Cherry On Top: Disney Chairman Dick Cook Fired? “˜Pirates 4″² Doomed?!). When this news broke, as you’ll recall, it didn’t take long before Cook’s friend Johnny Depp shared his distaste for the news, and that he now wasn’t so sure if he wanted to do Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides — the fourth movie in Disney’s mammoth franchise — anymore.

To add to this madness, a source has told Cinema Blend that while there’s a chance Depp will still do On Stranger Tides, he “definitely” will not be doing the fifth and sixth installments that they have planned for the franchise. It looks like Disney may have to throw a pile of the money at the most popular actor working today in order to will him back once more, but after that, they are saying that they would even go as far as replacing Captain Jack Sparrow with an entirely new character — which would quite possibly be the ballsiest move ever made.