5 Reasons Indiana Jones 5 Should NOT Be Made (And 5 Reasons It Should)
6. There Have Been SO Many Delays And Setbacks Already (Should NOT)
It's been 12 years since Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Plastic Skull left Indy fans collectively wondering "what the hell was that?" So when in 2016 it was announced that there would be a fifth adventure, redemption was around the corner. Initially set for release on 10 July 2020, 'production issues' pushed the release back to 9 July 2021.
Ford told Variety in June 2019 that the film "should be starting to shoot sometime next year". Then 2020 happened and the world began to fall apart. Films, TV shows, everything was put on hold or postponed. Bond, Batman, you name it, even Disney struggled to cope with their acquisition of Fox, filling up their slate with X-Men, Avatar, Deadpool and more. Indy was back on the drawing board again, this time with a release date of 29 July 2022.
It gets worse; David Koepp left writing duties in 2018, replaced by Jonathan Kasdan. Kasdan then stepped down, replaced by This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman.
In 2020 Fogelman quit and Koepp was back. Within months of that news, Spielberg quit as director, which meant Koepp was off the project again, replaced by new director James Mangold and his probably his own writing team.
That's four writers and two directors in less than three years and not one frame of footage has been shot. Kathleen Kennedy is still producing and so far, her track record with Star Wars isn't looking great.
In fact, is Indy 5 simply doomed? Sometimes, the writing is on the wall. If you have to force something this much, it might be better leaving it.