Paul McCartney is joining the cast of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.

We're five films in, and still this franchise is repeatedly smashing our face into the unrevolutionary metaphor that pirates were the rock stars of their time. Though we all understood instantly the second Captain Jack Sparrow took one lackadaisical step onto the port dock, Disney made sure the cranial latecomers got the message when Keith Richards popped up as Sparrow's dad in 2007's Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.

And still, it doesn't think we got it yet; prompting the casting of the former Beatle in what Deadline is describing as an extra, major set-piece scene added to the already wrapped film.

What exactly that entails is being kept top secret; although it wouldn't be that surprising if news dropped they'd roped in someone like Axl Rose and just smashed together an entire ship's crew of rock star rogues.

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That said, insiders appear to be extremely excited about the work of directors Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg, likening the film's spirit to the wit and enthusiasm of the franchise's original, debut entry Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.

McCartney joins the film's star Johnny Depp; Geoffrey Rush and Orlando Bloom return as Barbossa and Will Turner, alongside Javier Bardem as villain Captain Salazar, Brenton Thwaites, and Kaya Scodelario.