Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy opens up about why Indiana Jones 5 might be the last movie of the franchise shortly after wrapping filming. Harrison Ford is returning to lead the cast as the titular adventurer alongside Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Kretschmann, Boyd Holbrook, Shaunette Renée Wilson, Toby Jones, Antonio Banderas and Olivier Richters in undisclosed roles. Plot details are currently unknown for Indiana Jones 5 though the film is expected to explore the archaeologist's time during World War II as well as after the events of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
Development on Indiana Jones 5 has seen a bumpy road for the better part of 15 years, with George Lucas struggling to determine a proper story for the film before ultimately departing the franchise and handing the reins to Kathleen Kennedy upon her Lucasfilm president promotion in 2012. After initially hiring Jurassic Park scribe David Koepp and Solo: A Star Wars Story's Jonathan Kasdan to work on the film at various points, the sequel would finally start to gain some ground in mid-2020 when Logan's James Mangold signed on to direct and co-write with Ford v Ferrari collaborators Jez and John-Henry Butterworth. Filming on Indiana Jones 5 would run from June 2021 to this past February and as post-production continues leading up to its June 2023 release, those behind the franchise are already looking to what the future may hold for the series.
While speaking with Vanity Fair about the ever-expanding Star Wars universe, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy looked to the future of the Indiana Jones franchise. In reflecting on the box office failure of Solo: A Star Wars Story, the studio exec felt that doing the film without Harrison Ford was a major part of its poor reception and hinted that Indiana Jones 5 may be the last movie in the adventure franchise because of that. See what Kennedy said below:
"There should be moments along the way when you learn things. That may have certainly been a learning moment. Some people have talked about how, well, maybe Solo should have been a TV show. But even doing Solo as a TV show without Harrison Ford as Han Solo…it’s the same thinking. Maybe I should have recognized this before. We would never make Indiana Jones without Harrison Ford. Having just finished the fifth movie, I can tell you, there wasn’t a day I wasn’t on set where I wasn’t like, Yes—this is Indiana Jones."
Kennedy's statement regarding the Star Wars franchise choosing not to recast anymore legacy characters after Solo's failure has been met with much criticism for the perceived lack of awareness regarding why the film actually failed. Many have taken to defending both Alden Ehrenreich and Donald Glover's performances as a young Han Solo and Lando Calrissian from the film, believing them to be one of the only positive elements of the movie, while expressing that the film's real issues stemmed from its lackluster script and troubled production switching out Phil Lord and Christopher Miller for Ron Howard over unspecified creative differences with the studio. Recent installments in the Star Wars franchise have shown how Kennedy and Lucasfilm have reacted to the film's failure, choosing to use deepfake CGI for young Luke Skywalker appearances in both The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett over recasting the characters.
Many have also called into question Kennedy's Star Wars recasting sentiments coming ahead of Obi-Wan Kenobi's premiere, given the show will star both Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen, who portrayed younger versions of the titular Jedi and Anakin Skywalker. With that said, given development on Indiana Jones 5 has already taken well over a decade and Ford injured himself while performing an action sequence for the new film, it may be best for the adventure franchise to come to a close after the next film or hand the reins off to a new character as previously intended with Shia LaBeouf's Mutt in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Only time will tell what the future may hold for the series when Indiana Jones 5 hits theaters on June 30, 2023.
Source: Vanity Fair
