Indiana Jones 5 Will Not be the Last, Says Disney's Bob Iger

Harrison Ford and Steven Spielberg are currently cooking up an Indiana Jones 5 for Lucasfilm, and The Hollywood Reporter recently had a chance to sit down with Bob Iger — Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lucasfilm’s parent company Disney — to discuss the possibilities that will spring out of the fifth installment in the iconic adventure series. Does Disney plan to exploit the Indy brand the same way they are with Star Wars, i.e. multiple “saga” sequels plus a universe of prequels/spin-offs i.e. “Henry Jones Sr.: An Indiana Jones Story” or “A Marion Ravenwood Adventure”?

“Not like Star Wars, but we hope… right now, we’re focused on a reboot, or a continuum and then a reboot of some sort,” Iger cryptically stated. “Well, we’ll bring him back, then we have to figure out what comes next. That’s what I mean. It’s not really a reboot, it’s a boot — a reboot. I don’t know. We [got] Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones in the film. But then what’s the direction? I’ve had discussions about what the direction is, [but] I don’t want to get into it. I don’t think it reaches the scale of the universe of Star Wars, but I see making more. It won’t be just a one-off.”

This jibes with comments that series director Spielberg made about Ford’s status by the end of the next film.

“I think this one is straight down the pike for the fans,” said Spielberg recently. “The one thing I will tell you is I’m not killing off Harrison [Ford] at the end of it.”

Does that mean there’s a chance Ford could come back for framing sequences with a younger actor playing Indy in a hypothetical Indiana Jones 6, 7, 8, etc, ala the TV series “The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles”? Or does this mean there will be another actor taking up the mantle in-continuity, meaning the series would continue chronologically into the 1970s, ’80s and onwards? It’s also important to note that a prequel would not be unprecedented within the series, both through the TV show and the movies themselves, with 1984’s Temple of Doom having taken place before Raiders of the Lost Ark, and the first 20 minutes of Last Crusade is also a flashback to Young Indy.

“The opportunity to work with Steven again on this character which has brought pleasure to so many… Not to mention me,” Harrison Ford said previously. “It’s fun, it’s great fun to play this character. It’s great fun to work with Steven, I’m looking forward to it.”

Franchise veterans Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall will produce Indiana Jones 5. John Williams is expected to once again provide the music, while screenwriter David Koepp (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Jurassic Park) is signed to pen the script.

The movie is set for a July 19, 2019 release date.