TheWrap is reporting that Johnny Depp is getting ready to sign on for the fifth movie of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. This, really, is a development that should be as unsurprising as me telling you that the sky is blue. Not only has a script for the movie been done for at least a few months, but everybody involved in the series has been talking about the film like the inevitable project that it is.

But Depp has also expressed a desire to take a break from the movies for a while, as he finds them “tiring,” or some excuse of that nature, so some people might be surprised to hear that he’s doing this only about a month and a half after the release of On Stranger Tides.

And then you read another story by TheWrap, one which tells us that the actor has made $350 million off of the franchise in the eight years that it’s been around. If you give that a second to sink in — and couple it with the fact that the latest movie just crossed the increasingly irrelevant $1 billion mark at the box office — you know exactly why he’s signing on so soon. Rob Marshall might be directing, although I’m not sure how his next collaboration with Depp, The Thin Man, will affect that. His presence as a creative force is said to have been non-existent, and there was that shortlist that showed up recently, but those directors don’t seem likely to do this movie — even if one of them is the creatively stunted Tim Burton.

The star has said that the movies “should be special,” and that’s because “they are special” to him, but who would ever think that this wasn’t motivated by money? I actually do like him (despite him not utilizing his talent for years), but he’s just being modest by not saying, “Well, the money is great, so it’s an easy choice.” Part of the reason I’ve never liked the Pirates movies is because I get the impression that they’re made with only the box office gross in mind; they lack the heart and care evident in something like Lord of the Rings, or even Harry Potter. So I’m not surprised by this news in the least, but I have even more reason to never touch this franchise again.

Do you want to see a Pirates 5, and does it seem like Depp’s decision to sign on this quickly is motivated by money?