James Mangold will push Indiana Jones 5 “someplace new” while honoring past movies

Director James Mangold (The Wolverine, Logan) is helming Indiana Jones 5 (subtitle forthcoming), which is on Disney schedule for release at some point in 2022. Mangold will be filling some very big shoes left empty by Steven Spielberg. How is he going to make this new movie is as beloved as the first four (Or first three, depending on who you ask)?

“[L]ike in all my work, I’m always trying to find an emotional center to operate from,” Mangold told ComicBook.com. “I think the most important thing is, in an age when franchises have become a commodity, that serving the same thing again. At least for me, in the dances I’ve had with any franchises, serving the same thing again, the same way, usually just produces a longing for the first time you ate it.”

"Meaning, it makes an audience wish that they just had the first one over again. So you have to push something to someplace new, while also remembering the core reasons why everyone was gathered. And to use Logan as an example of that, when you’re dealing in a world of a very pressured franchise."

Logan was one of the best X-Men movies to date, catching up with the legendary mutant towards the end of his life and lacing the film with notes of melancholia and tragedy. If Logan can do for Indiana Jones — who with Harrison Ford pushing 80 is also getting pretty long in the tooth — what he did for Wolverine, we all have nothing to worry about.

But when will we actually get to see the movie? Like everything else in Hollywood, Indy 5 has been affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Producer Frank Marshall gave an update on that to Collider. “The number one thing, obviously, is the safety of everybody – the cast, the crew, and all of us,” he said. “So, we’re looking at the guidelines that are coming slowly, from the health experts and the studios and the different parts of the business, and we’re just trying to incorporate everything, so we can move forward and be safe.”

"It’s going to obviously slow things down, so we’re trying to adjust. You won’t see a lot of big crowd scenes, for example, for awhile. There won’t be any more craft service, so maybe that’ll be good for people, in keeping more fit. It’s a moving target right now. There are a lot of people working on the solutions, to be able to work and be safe."

Hopefully, Mangold and Marshall’s new effort will make us forget all about Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

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h/t SyFy Wire