You may have seen our story from a few days ago that explains that, while Johnny Depp is still planning to participate in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, he'd be a lot less likely to sign on for any further sequels, and that Disney may consider replacing Jack Sparrow with some other new character.

To follow up on the story, I spoke to a Disney representative today who had checked with the higher-ups in the company, who assure that Depp has not wavered one bit in his commitment to Pirates 4, despite some cryptic statements he made when Disney exec Dick Cook left the studio last week.

As for any movies following Stranger Tides, the Disney rep can't speak about those-- probably not because they don't want to do them, but because nothing has yet been greenlit, and it would be silly to publicly speculate otherwise. Same goes for a new character, which our rep says they're not even thinking about yet--though, again, that doesn't mean that no one at the Disney office has had the thought "Hey, how does Zac Efron look in eyeliner?"

So, to wrap things up, Johnny Depp is still doing Pirates 4, just as our tipster suspected he would given that he's a man of his word. As for what happens after that, no one knows for certain-- not Depp, not Disney, not the guy who makes Captain Jack's hats, even our tipster said it was all just speculation and rumors. As soon as anything emerges as fact, we promise to let you know.