Indy 5 | Spielberg Out! Mangold In?

Steven Spielberg vacates the directors chair on Indiana Jones 5

In what is one of the most unexpected and shocking developments in the protracted history of the fifth ‘Indiana Jones‘ film, it has been announced that director Steven Spielberg has walked away from the director’s chair and won’t be helming the film.

Indiana Jones 5 is Expected to Start filming Next Week Says Harrison Ford!

Spielberg has directed all four of the intrepid explorers’ adventures so far and you could have put your mortgage on him being in charge on the fifth film. No longer. Although Spielberg will remain on the film in a producing capacity, the film, long-gestating and besieged by script and scheduling problems is now in need of someone new to fill the main chair.

Rumours are flying about exactly who will now take the reins after Spielberg’s departure, the main one being that ‘Ford Vs Ferarri‘ and ‘Logan‘ director James Mangold will fill the empty director’s chair. If Mangold was to step into Spielberg’s very large shoes, then it wouldn’t be a bad choice of replacement. Mangold has form with these kinds of big-budget pictures after ‘The Wolverine‘ and ‘Logan‘ so he could fit in pretty well. Of course, no one can really replace Spielberg though.

Star Harrison Ford recently proclaimed the film would be before the cameras ‘within two months’ before backtracking slightly to say the film is having problems with ‘Scheduling issues and a few script things’ and that ‘we’re determined to get it right before we get it made’. It sounds though that the script is coming along pretty well and the film is almost ready to go. That was before Spielberg’s departure, however.

At the moment, the film has a release date of July 9th 2021 but after today’s announcement, you can probably push that date way back by at least a year. That’s assuming the film gets made at all. Ford has been vocal about only doing the film if Spielberg was behind the camera. There is now a very good chance that Ford may simply decide he’s no longer interested in playing the character one more time despite his former director still being onboard the project in a producing capacity. And if Ford walks, then the project is dead. To be honest, it wouldn’t surprise me if the project is already dead in the water after today’s shock announcement. To my mind, Spielberg and Ford are a team when it comes to the ‘Indy‘ saga. And if one steps away, the other will probably follow.

Indiana Jones 5 is Expected to Start filming Next Week Says Harrison Ford!

It now remains to be seen if the film still goes ahead. Keep checking back right here at The Future Of The Force for any updates on this story.

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Carl Roberts is a Senior Staff Writer and Books and Literature Correspondent for Future of the Force. Aside from being our horror genre aficionado, he is also passionate about Star Wars, Marvel, DC, and the Indiana Jones movies. Follow him on Twitter @CarlRoberts2 where he uses the force frequently!