In a scoop exclusive to movie news site HitFix.com, we have learned that the 4th Jack Sparrow adventure, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides won’t just be a return to film for the Pirates franchise, but it will be the beginning of a new trilogy.

Yes, that’s right, Pirates of the Caribbean 5 & 6 are on their way.

From a personal perspective, this is a huge risk.

The original Pirates trilogy was a perfect example of the law of diminishing returns.  The first was an astounding breath of fresh air, but the breakneck back-to-back filming schedule of the second and third installments resulted in two overwrought, over-lengthy films where one was mostly good (the second) and one mostly bad (the third).

I assume the results of On Stranger Tides thus far have been positive, at least for Disney to make such a huge step forward, but as 5 and 6 are scheduled to be (again) filmed back to back, it really sounds like a perfect example of too much too soon.

I mean, On Stranger Tides itself is only happening as the script is based on a book completely unrelated to the Pirates saga, and I’m not sure that I’d trust the creative team to be able to deal with making two more movies.   If you watched the documentary on the DVD of the second film, you’d know that the script was being written and rewritten throughout filming, and that explains why the third film was mostly a mess (that whirlpool battle was kinda rad though).

Not to mention, the big question mark of Johnny Depp.  The man is signed to be in both Dark Shadows and The Lone Ranger next year, when will he have the time to reprise Sparrow?

This is a big risk, but evidently Disney knows something I don’t. We shall see.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, the fourth film in the Pirates series opens on May 20th, 2011 with a trailer rumored to be attached to Tron Legacy.

Source: HitFix.com.