It's undeniable that over the past few years that billboard has been overflowing with sequels (as well as reboots, remakes, live actions, prequels...) and it doesn't seem like this trend will fade any time in the foreseeable future. In 2019 we've seen the return of 'Toy Story', 'Men in Black', 'Godzilla' and we've still got the returns of 'Rambo', 'The Terminator' and 'Frozen' to come. But who is missing from this list? One of the greats; an adventurer, archaeologist and professor all in one; the man under the fedora and behind the whip. We're missing 'Indiana Jones'.
After Disney officially announced the return of the saga in March 2019 with Harrison Ford at the helm, the delays have been piling up on top of each other. The first expected release date was the 19th July 2019, which soon became the 10th July 2020, which turned into a state of limbo that lacks even a greenlit script. Indy was lost in the wild jungle of production until, finally, we saw a light at the end of the tunnel regarding the future of this franchise.
David Koepp, screenwriter behind Sam Raimi's 'Spider-Man' and associate with Steven Spielberg's 'War of the Worlds', 'The Lost World: Jurassic Park' and 'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull', has confirmed that he'll be returning to the writer's room to work on the fifth instalment of the franchise. "We're still trying it. And I think we have a good idea this time. We'll see".
The one and only
From the words of Koepp we can deduce that, although there was a finished script and set dates for filming (April 2019 according to Spielberg), at some point this story was cancelled and so began the search for a new story to tell. We have no idea what the future has in store for Henry Walton Jones Jr., but what is clear is that Harrison Ford remains the face of the character, because the actor insists that he is unwilling to hand over the baton: "Nobody else will be Indiana Jones. Don't you get it? I am Indiana Jones. When I'm gone, he's gone. It's easy".
