Indiana Jones 5 continues to rumble towards theaters. Steven Spielberg’s currently working on his adaptation of West Side Story, but he’s confirmed that the fourth sequel to cinema’s most famous archaeologist adventurer is next on his slate.
So, in the meantime, various writers have been busily turning out drafts. We’ve known for a while now that longtime Spielberg collaborator, screenwriter David Koepp, had worked on the project, but it seems that something is up behind the scenes, as they’ve reportedly ditched Koepp’s script in favor of some new blood.
First to take a crack at it was Solo: A Star Wars Story‘s writer Jonathan Kasdan, who at least has experience in writing for Harrison Ford-ish characters. His draft reportedly centered around the mystery of the Walbrzych Gold Train, a train full of Nazi gold that went missing after World War II. Rumored to be full of gold, artefacts and lost masterpieces, the train is said to have been hidden in a Polish mine and forgotten about.
But, now it seems that this concept has itself been ditched. Jason Ward over at Making Star Wars reports that This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman has hopped on board as the film’s writer. He’s jettisoned the ‘lost train’ concept and is pressing forward with his own new idea. There’s no word on precisely what that is yet, but we can probably presume it’ll follow the long-rumored narrative skeleton of Harrison Ford’s older Indy flashing back to his younger self’s adventures.
With Indiana Jones 5 currently targeting a July 9th, 2021 release date, they’ve got a while to work out the particulars yet, but it’s perhaps a little strange that they can’t agree what the basic structure of the plot should be. I mean, Harrison Ford is 76 now… Better get a move on guys.