Ever since the fourth installment in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, was announced, it has appeared that the Walt Disney Company had full intentions of turning it into another trilogy. However, after the shocking firing of Disney Chairman and friend of star Johnny Depp, Dick Cook, complications arose. Depp was not happy and at the time, his involvement in the franchise was up in the air.

Clearly things were sorted out enough to get Depp back for On Stranger Tides, but there was a time where it seemed any additional movies would be out of the question for the superstar.

Now comes word via HitFix that Disney still has full intentions to make Pirates of the Caribbean 5 and Pirates of the Caribbean 6. The company has sent out word to all cast and crew to set aside a significant chunk of time in the near future, where the two movies will be filmed back-to-back in the same way that the Lord of the Rings trilogy was filmed.

This will save time and money, and will allow the studio to avoid any complications that might arise if they waited.

With this, it has to be assumed that Depp was happy with where On Stranger Tides went and his work with director Rob Marshall, who stepped in for Gore Verbinski. It’s hard to believe that they’d make plans for a massive two-film shoot without his complete involvement, and this proves to be exciting news for fans of the franchise.