Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny: Everything We Know About Harrison Ford's Return To The Franchise
As hard as it might be to believe (and it's pretty difficult, if we're being honest), a fifth Indiana Jones movie, dubbed The Dial of Destiny, is coming fairly soon. As is usually the case in Hollywood, there's no such thing as letting sleeping dogs lie with these huge brands.
Indiana Jones has become one of our longest-winded major franchises, with the first three films spanning the 1980s ('81-89), followed by a fourth movie decades later in 2008. But that film, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, was not well received and these days is thought of in the same light as the Star Wars prequels--not the most flattering comparison.
In Crystal Skull, Indy was ostensibly passing the torch to a successor Mutt, his secret son with Mario Ravenwood who was played by one Shia LeBeouf. Said passing of the torch never ended up materializing after that film, with LeBeouf falling from his status as a hot up-and-comer in the years since. It looked for a while that that would simply be that for the Indiana Jones franchise, but here we are, 14 years later, with The Dial of Destiny and a new heir-apparent to the hat and whip.
But we'll get to that later. There's so much to talk about with regards to this movie, and the new Indy Jr is just one part of it. So let's dig in. Here's everything we know so far about what's in store for us with Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
When can we watch Indiana Jones 5?
After all sorts of delays, The Dial of Destiny has settled on a June 30, 2023 release.
Is Stephen Spielberg directing?
No. Indy 5 comes from James Mangold, the director of Logan, one of the best Marvel movies.
What's a Dial of Destiny and what does it do?
No idea. It's a nebulous concept and the trailer provided few clues. Could this thing have something to do with it?
Will Shia LeBeouf be in it?
Not that we know of.
Who IS coming back?
Does a digitally de-aged, 30-years-younger-version of Harrison Ford count as a cast member separate from current Harrison Ford? We'll let you debate that one.
Aside from Harrison Ford as Indys of various ages, the only past cast member confirmed to return is John Rhys-Davies as Sallah, who appeared in Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade. So no Karen Allen as Marion Ravenwood, who Indy married at the end of the last movie. No Jim Broadbent as whoever it was he played in the last one. And, as previously mentioned, no Shia LeBeouf.
And, perhaps most frustrating of all given his award-winning turn in Everything Everywhere All At Once, Ke Huy Quan will not be reprising his role as Short Round.
As far as we know, of course.
Who else is in the cast of Indiana Jones 5?
Aside from Ford and Rhys-Davies, we've got a stacked cast of new characters, starting with Mads Mikkelson as Voller, the main baddie, and Boyd Holbrook as his enforcer Klaber. Toby Jones, Antonio Banderas and Thomas Kretschmann will also have parts to play. A seven-foot-tall Dutch bodybuilder named Olivier Richters will presumably play a bad guy Indy will have to defeat in some kind of dryly funny way.
But most importantly of all, we've got Phoebe Waller-Bridge as Indiana Jones's goddaughter, new partner in crime, and likely new heir to the whip and fedora from here.
Will the events of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull even be acknowledged?
We have no idea. But it's a smart bet there'll at least be a joke or two about it. Maybe Indy can hide in another refrigerator.
So what's Indy 5 about?
We don't have a lot of details, but the film is said to use the space race of the 1960s as its backdrop, with the villainous Voller being based on Wernher Von Braun, the famous Nazi rocket scientist who got to live a plum life working at NASA after World War II. So this time, it looks like the call is coming from inside the house.
The first trailer was one of those "flash a bunch of context-free cool shots" affairs, so it wasn't really illuminating at all about plot details. But it's clear that there will be flashback scenes with a digitally de-aged Harrison Ford, and a brief shot of Voller in full Nazi uniform makes us think these two knew each other back in the day.
One other thing we do know for sure: one big action set piece will take place during the New York City ticker tape parade celebrating the return of astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins from the Apollo 11 mission--the first manned mission to land on the moon in 1969. Apparently Indy's never too old to get into an exciting horse chase.