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Ian McShane is many things to many people. To the children of the world, he will soon be the next big bad pirate to try and thwart the jolly conquests of Jack Sparrow, a character whose stories have earned Walt Disney Pictures over a two and a half billion dollars at the box office. According to THR, McShane has joined the production of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides as the villainous Blackbeard.

Real name Edward Teach, the actual pirate Blackbeard was a notorious English pirate who operated around the West Indies and the eastern coast of the American colonies during the early 1700s. He was known for using the legend surrounding his name to indimidate other sea-fairing ships, causing them to bow to the might of his ship, Queen Anne’s Revenge.

In the opinion of this writer, Ian McShane is the perfect choice to play someone like Blackbeard. He’s the perfect choice to play anyone who needs to be a raspy, angry, brutal sonofagun. As we’ve seen from him in Deadwood, the most likely place you’d recognize him, he can play mean. That’s understating things a bit, I know, but work with me here. McShane is a very good addition to Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz, rounding out a cast that is cause for optimism for a fourth Pirates movie.

Directed by Rob Marshall (Nine, Chicago), Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides is scheduled to hit theaters on May 20, 2011.