The fifth and final Indiana Jones film was announced a few years ago, with Steven Spielberg planned to direct the famous archeologist’s final adventure, as he did with every entry in the series. We even wrote an article about the film almost two years ago. Recently, however, it was announced that Steven Spielberg would not direct the final project anymore, passing the mantle in order to let a younger talent take care of the film. He would stay as a producer, however, and Harrison Ford recently confirmed that work on the movie should begin shortly. The news, however, has not been received well by Indy fans, and many have signed petitions asking to cancel the production of the movie. It’s unlikely that this will have any sort of impact, however. So, let’s look at both the positives and negatives which this decision could bring along.
Why this is good news
Well, for one, it will let someone else give the final Indiana Jones project a shot. Although not confirmed yet, the new director is almost certainly going to be James Mangold, who most recently directed Le Mans ’66. Since The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull took place in 1957, Indy 5 is likely going to be set somewhere in the 60s, which keeps Mangold in the same decade which he exploited so well in the Ford-centred, Best Picture nominated movie. Le Mans ’66 had a very classic look and feel, and balanced comedy with action-packed drama very evenly, which should be a receipe for success for someone embarking on an Indy Jones project. And of course, nobody is even for a second doubting Spielberg’s vision and skill, but many die-hard fans are forgetting that he was actually the one responsible for the mediocre Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Actually, just for the record, Indy 4 wasn’t bad at all, just considerably weaker than the other three.
Why this is bad news
As the creator and sole director of every major Indiana Jones project to date, Spielberg should have probably been the one to give the series a proper sendoff. As one comment I came across said, the sole purpose of Indy 5 would have been to redeem the failures of The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and fans are worried that without Spielberg, the film will lose even more of its substance, and not bring along any redeeming factors whatsoever. Many people are asking themselves if Spielberg really quit the film in order to give another director a chance, or because he simply did not believe in the project and did not want to be associated with an even worse failure than 12 years ago. Well, we can’t know that, so the only thing we can do is wait until 2021-ish and see for ourselves. Until then, I’ll personally remain cautiously optimistic about the whole deal.
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