New INDIANA JONES movie is officially happening… someday

That Vanity Fair Star Wars article is turning out to be the gift that keeps on giving. While VF were chatting with Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy about George Lucas selling off his company to Disney, she also revealed something interesting about Lucasfilm’s other big franchise, the one that swops lightsabers and black helmets for whips and fedoras.

“In buying the company, Disney also got rights, for better or worse, to less-storied Lucasfilm properties, among them Willow and Radioland Murders. A bigger prize is the Indiana Jones franchise. Kennedy confirmed rumors that another Indy movie ‘will one day be made inside this company. When it will happen, I’m not quite sure. We haven’t started working on a script yet, but we are talking about it.’”

Now rumours of a fifth Indiana Jones flick have been circling for a while now, with Chris Pratt even rumoured at one stage to be Disney’s top pick to be the new Indy (a rumour that the actor subsequently shot down though, saying that nobody has even contacted him about it). However, this is the first time that any of the Powers That Be who hold the franchise reins have ever officially admitted on the record that they’re thinking of reviving it.

Previous statements have been that nothing is happening because they don’t have a script, and the latter appears to still be the case, but at least they’re talking about it now. And outside of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, Kennedy herself is probably the best qualified to do that talking as she actually acted as Spielberg’s producer for virtually all of his movies (which includes Temple of Doom), and is married to and is producing partners with Frank Marshall, who was producer on all the Indiana Jones movies. So yeah, they know Indy.

A very interesting thing to add to that observation is that Marshall is also producing the upcoming Jurassic World, which just so happens to star Chris Pratt. If that movie does well, and Lucasfilm do push ahead with perhaps a younger version of Indiana Jones, would it really be that unexpected to see Marshall reaching out to Pratt, particularly after how well fans responded to just the rumour of him getting the gig?

As a gigantic Indiana Jones fans myself, I can honestly say that I’m much more open to the idea of doing a prequel with Pratt – perhaps set in the time between the River Phoenix section at the beginning of Last Crusade and Temple of Doom (which takes place before Raiders chronologically) – than I am with them either outright rebooting the character or pulling a Shia LeBeouf and introducing Indy’s kid as his successor. Also, just keep George Lucas away from all of this.

 

Last Updated: May 7, 2015