I am a HUGE fan of the Pirates of the Caribbean series, and love the hell out of all three of the movies. Though I view the first as the best, I think that the latter two films were still amazing cinematic experiences. As many of you know, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides is the fourth installment of the Pirates franchise. These are the details that we have thus far:

Rob Marshall will be directing -- Unfortunately Gore for some reason decided not to return. Maybe he wanted to let sleeping dogs lie. I don't know. But with him absent, and being replaced by a MUSICAL director... I don't know. I'm not very movie-historically inclined, so I don't know how this usually ends up, but upon first glance, it'll end up as a completely different film than the first three.

Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio have returned to write the script. (Well, they already have, as a matter of fact.) Ted and Terry wrote the first three installments, so they really know how to pull together an excellent story.

Jerry Buckenheimer will once again produce. What's a Pirates film without a huge blockbuster producer? Heh. Nah, I kid. Like I said, I wouldn't know if him producing is good or bad, so I'll let that simmer with you guys.

The entire crew of the Black Pearl will be absent. That's right. I spoke to Martin Klebba on Facebook (The little dude.) and he told me that he wouldn't be returning, nor would any of the rest of the cast, save for three. That's very sad, to me. The crew of the Pearl consisted of the majority cast of the films, and considering -----*SPOILERS*----- Norrington died in PotC: At World's End, Knightly and Bloom aren't returning, this particular cut is not affordable. I don't see the audience going with it. I think that they need to bring back more of the cast, at least three or four names (Maybe Pintel and Ragetti, Mullroy and Murtogg) it'd be a little bit more "relatable", I guess you could say.

We WILL see three new people returning, on the other hand. Johnny Depp, Kevin McNally, and Geoffery Rush will all reprise their roles as Jack Sparrow (CAPTAIN, Jack Sparrow,rather.) Mr. Gibbs, and Hector Barbossa. Well, at least we got the main cast. It's also rumored that we'll have Keith Richerds back to play Jack's father Captain Edward Teague. Another familiar face that is confirmed for the film is Greg Ellis to play Lieutenant Theodore Groves. ("That's got to be the best pirate I've ever seen!" "Do you think he plans it all out, or just makes it up as he goes along?) which is something to somewhat look forward to.

Penelope Cruz (NINE, another Rob Marshall film. Can you hear the dancing and singing already?) will play Jack's love interest in the movie. Her father will me the main villain as well (Ruling out Barbossa as the bad guy?) by Ian McShane. Blackbeard was a real historical pirate, his real name was Captain Edward Teach (Yeah, that's where Teague's name comes from) who captained Queen Anne's Revenge. But enough history. Astrid Berges-Frisbey will enter the series as a mermaid, and there are supposedly another two mermaids being cast. Stephen Graham who plays a guy named Scram, some sort of Sparrow acquaintance, and a few other misc. characters who don't matter until we know who they are.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides began filming in Hawaii on the 15th of June, just a few days ago. Jerry Buckenheimer released a few photos to his Twitter and will continue doing so of what is up so far. But as of now, it's nothing too interesting.

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Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides is set to release June 11th.