The Future of Indiana Jones 5 Looks Bright

If you’re going to replace Steven Spielberg—and let’s be honest, nobody could ever replace him—you could hardly do better than director James Mangold. Spielberg stepped aside from directing Indiana Jones 5 so that the Logan and Ford v Ferrari auteur could take a crack. This makes Mangold the first person to direct an Indy movie not named Steven Spielberg. Indiana Jones is currently slated for 2022 release for Disney, and while that feels very far away considering time seemed to have stopped around mid-March, the news about the Mangold-led project sounds promising.

Collider has spoken to the film’s producer (and longtime Indy creative) Frank Marshall, who had good things to say about Mangold, of course. On Indiana Jones 5 getting Mangold in the director’s chair, Marshall says that his “love for the franchise” was one key element. Also, the guy’s “a wonderful filmmaker” who happens to also have a great relationship with star Harrison Ford. Meanwhile, Spielberg is not leaving the Indy-verse (apologies); he’ll be staying on as a producer.

As for the script, Solo: A Star Wars Story scribe Jonathan Kasdan and longtime screenwriter David Koepp have just begun. One would imagine that Mangold himself will be an active participant in the scripting process, considering his own considerable writing chops.

Marshall stressed that right now when thinking about getting Indy 5 into production, safety relating to COVID-19 is paramount:

“The number one thing, obviously, is the safety of everybody – the cast, the crew, and all of us,” he told Collider. “So, we’re looking at the guidelines that are coming slowly, from the health experts and the studios and the different parts of the business, and we’re just trying to incorporate everything, so we can move forward and be safe. It’s going to obviously slow things down, so we’re trying to adjust. You won’t see a lot of big crowd scenes, for example, for a while. There won’t be any more craft service, so maybe that’ll be good for people, in keeping more fit. It’s a moving target right now. There are a lot of people working on the solutions, to be able to work and be safe.”

Here’s to dreaming of a future when James Mangold’s Indiana Jones 5 opens to packed theaters in a safe, pandemic-free environment. One can dream.

Featured image: Harrison Ford walks through cobwebs in a scene from the film ‘Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade’, 1989. (Photo by Paramount/Getty Images)