The most famous adventurer in Hollywood returns next year: 15 years after The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Indiana Jones is back for a fifth and final film. Harrison Ford might be 80 now, but he’s still donning the whip and hat to give the iconic archaeologist, and his favourite role, a true send-off. While there’s yet to be a trailer (one is right around the corner) and not even a title yet, the first photos and cast reveals have got us itching for another round of treasure hunting.
Filming finally began last year after what seemed like an eternity of rumours of a fifth Indy outing- with plenty of press covering the fact that quite a bit of the movie was shot around the UK, in London, Yorkshire, and Glasgow. Despite whispers that Ford might be replaced by someone else, those were dispelled when images of the star in his trademark hat, jacket, and whip appeared online. And there’s other big names sharing the screen this time around: Fleabag star Phoebe Waller-Bridge was cast in one of the leading roles- swapping glances-to-camera with intrepid adventuring. She’ll play Helena, Indy’s goddaughter, who joins him on his new quest.
While he’s fought death cultists and Soviet soldiers, Indy’s most iconic foe will always be the Nazis, who return in this film (despite the story being set in 1969), played by the reliably sinister Mads Mikkelsen, and The Sandman’s Boyd Holbrook. Also featuring in the film are Shaunette Renee Wilson, Antonio Banderas, and John Rhys-Davies, who returns as Indy’s trusty friend Sallah, who appeared in both Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade. So where is Indy now? The somewhat criticised Crystal Skull ended with Indy finally getting married to old flame Marion Ravenwood, having accepted his son Mutt Williams as his own.
This new entry (the first without Steven Spielberg and instead directed by James Mangold) sees Jones a long way from his adventures in the 30s that formed the original trilogy. He’s older and presumably wiser- and still understandably holds a grudge against former Nazis. He’s sceptical that the US government has recruited them to help in the Space Race against the Soviet Union and finds himself dragged back to the world of whip-cracking and artifact hunting when two former Nazis reveal themselves.
As some of the official images show, Ford is still happy to get stuck into action scenes, but his age will be changed in one scene through the power of de-aging. In the film’s opening sequence, CGI will be used to make Henry Jones look more like he did in Raiders since it’ll be set a few decades prior to the main plot. The film has a tentative release date of 30th June 2023, and will also feature the final film score from John Williams before his retirement.
Indiana Jones 5 releases on 30th June 2023