Director James Mangold recently went out of his way to debunk those rumors of disastrous test screenings that had fans picturing the worst, but at the very least, we know Harrison Ford will comfortably retain his iconic aura in next summer’s Indiana Jones 5.
By the time the fifth and final outing for the legendary archeologist-cum-adventurer lands on June 30 of 2023, 15 years will have passed since the wildly polarizing Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, with no less than 42 having elapsed since Steven Spielberg’s all-time classic Raiders of the Lost Ark.
There’s a lot of pressure on Mangold’s shoulders, especially when it marks the first film that doesn’t have Spielberg calling the shots, but the first look at the leading man in character revealed by Empire Magazine promises that Ford is going to look the part if nothing else.
The Logan architect also hinted that we’ll be seeing the first trailer sooner rather than later, and with Empire’s print edition arriving next week and Avatar: The Way of Water coming to theaters imminently, the smart money would be on James Cameron’s return to Pandora dropping the first footage from the long-awaited Indiana Jones 5.
Is it going to live up to the hype? Well, that’s an entirely different question, but Mangold has proven himself capable of putting phenomenal spins on long-running franchises in the past, so we’re inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt for now. Less Crystal Skull, more original trilogy, and everyone will be happy with the end result.