Fresh details have recently emerged about the upcoming Pirates of the Caribbean installment, On Stranger Tides, and they’re actually pretty interesting.  In fact, it’s possible to glean an admittedly rather tenuous concept of the plot at this point, based on earlier reports and the current news.

They’ve optioned a book which is also called On Stranger Tides, but the book’s actually about a puppeteer that turns pirate, Jack Shandy by name, who’s out to stop evil pirates (is there really any other kind?) from taking over the Fountain of Youth.

Remember how, earlier, there was some talk that Johnny Depp might not be back for part five?  Well, what if this Shandy character ends up taking over?  They’d need Jack Sparrow to handle four, which is planned to be thus, but five could be handed over to Shandy without much trouble.  Would people follow Shandy?  That depends on how well he handles things in four.  But that’s a definite possibility–even if we’ll have to wait a while to see how it all comes off.