Gore Verbinski, who directed all three of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, has informed Disney and producer Jerry Bruckheimer that he will not be returning to direct Pirates of the Caribbean 4. While a fourth movie doesn’t technically exist yet, Disney has pretty much always had plans to return to the seas for another movie, and possibly even another trilogy. Considering the multi-billions of dollars the franchise based simply on a ride at the theme park has made them, who could even blame them? Another big time concern is, how much will the director’s departure affect the forward motion of the fourth movie?

Verbinski has multiple other projects lined up, most notably of which is a live-action movie based on the hugely popular video game, BioShock. This would be the biggest and most challenging of projects, and it’s expected that this is what is next in line for the visual director. Another fairly significant and recently-announced option he has, is a new movie based on the popular board game, Clue. Currently, he’s working on an animated movie called Rango in which Pirates star Johnny Depp voices the lead.

Verbinski offered this statement: