Mads Mikkelsen: Indiana Jones 5 returns to the series’ roots, feels “dense and epic”

Mads Mikkelsen is known for playing villains: there’s the Bond villain Le Chiffre in Casino Royale, who weeped blood; there’s the dark wizard Grindelwald in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore; and there’s whoever he plays in the upcoming fifth Indiana Jones movie. We technically don’t know if he plays a villain yet, but do we really need to ask?

Indiana Jones 5 was originally going to be directed by Steven Spielberg, who started the series way back in 1981 with Raiders of the Lost Arc. Eventually, he handed the reins to Logan director James Mangold, although Spielberg remains on staff as a producer.

“[Raiders of the Lost Ark] was one of my favorite films, and it just oozed that golden period of serials from the 1940s — and that’s in the fifth film as well,” Mikkelsen recently told The Hollywood Reporter. “They’re going heavily back to the first and second film and getting that original feel, the original Indy, something dense and epic.”

James Mangold (Ford v Ferrari) has taken over directing duties from Steven Spielberg, who remains on board as an executive producer. “It felt like a Spielberg film, though it’s obviously James making it with the same vision,” Mikkelsen says.

Mads Mikkelsen: Harrison Ford is “a monster of a man”

As for Harrison Ford, who will return to play Indy, Mikkelsen says that reports of injuries sustained on set haven’t slowed him down. “It was the first time I met him, and he’s an insanely powerful person,” Mikkelsen said. “Not just as an actor, but physically. I remember the first day we were shooting, it was a night shoot, then we stopped at 5 a.m. — and then he got on his mountain bike and went biking for 50 kilometers [31 miles]. Harrison is a monster of a man, a very nice monster.”

Well, as long as he’s a nice one.

Actor who played Short Round in Temple of Doom down for more Indiana Jones movies

With Indiana Jones 5 returning to the series’ roots, I wonder if we’ll see any familiar faces pop up. For instance, remember Short Round, Indy’s sidekick from 1984’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom?

The actor who played Short Round, Ke Huy Quan, is now grown up and appearing alongside Jamie Lee Curtis and Michelle Yeoh in Everything Everywhere All At Once. While he was doing a Reddit AMA to promote the movie, he chimed in that he would absolutely be down to come back as Short Round…or Normal-Sized Round, or whatever he would be called now. “YES! Absolutely to more Indiana Jones movies. Haha,” he wrote.

We’ll see what happens when Indiana Jones 5 comes out on June 30, 2023.

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h/t The A.V. Club