This time, Gore Verbinski has vacated the director’s chair for Rob Marshall, hired by producer Jerry Bruckheimer to steer through the first Pirates movie to be shot in 3D.

And while it’s hardly Elizabeth At Sea, Marshall and writer Rossio have introduced a keener historical edge, with characters like King George II (Richard Griffiths), King Ferdinand VI of Spain (Sebastian Armesto) and McShane’s take on Blackbeard – an infamous, 18th-century West Indies pirate.

“The one thing we couldn’t change,” says Rossio, “is Jack. That would have been a mistake. He’s always been a trickster character and we had to carry that through.

And with Johnny, there’s no need to embellish the performance on the page because you know that he’ll do it all himself.

We took a lot from Tim Powers’ book On Stranger Tides, which focused on Blackbeard and the Fountain Of Youth. We also wanted a romantic foil for Jack – someone who could meet him on his own terms, with wordplay as well as swordplay.

Johnny had a lot of input into creating scenes, storylines, situations. We had lots of creative dinners.

They’d normally start at 11pm, the drinks would arrive around 1am and we’d go on to around 5 in the morning – usually at some incredibly opulent LA restaurant.”