Indiana Jones 5 hit a speedbump yesterday when reports emerged that Harrison Ford had injured his shoulder during rehearsals. The star, who turns 79 in early July, doesn’t appear to have seriously hurt himself but this will impact the movie’s production schedule.
To clear things up, Disney released a short statement, saying (via Deadline):
“In the course of rehearsing for a fight scene, Harrison Ford sustained an injury involving his shoulder. Production will continue while the appropriate course of treatment is evaluated, and the filming schedule will be reconfigured as needed in the coming weeks.”
This isn’t ideal, but hopefully this eventuality was factored into the production plans and the shoot won’t be delayed too much.
Even so, it’s a worrying echo of the nightmare incident during The Force Awakens shoot in 2014 when Ford was trapped under a hydraulic door on the Millennium Falcon set. A later court hearing revealed that Ford could easily have died in this accident as the door passed “millimeters from his face”, pinned him to the ground by his pelvis, and broke both bones in his right leg. The judge described it as a “serious breach” of safety protocol and issued a $2 million fine to the production company.
Other than this, Indiana Jones 5 seems to be coming together nicely. We’ve seen images of Ford back in the classic Indy gear, along with production shots that indicate a split timeline story. Shots from a stunt in the English countryside have shown actors wearing a prosthetic mask making them look like a young Indiana Jones, and a train with a Nazi swastika on it all but confirms that part of the plot takes place during World War II.
In the meantime I wish Ford a speedy recovery and that the shoot continues without any further incidents. Let’s hope we can get some more images from the set that point to where the adventure is heading.
Indiana Jones 5 is scheduled for release on July 29, 2022.