‘Indiana Jones 5’ star compares joining the franchise to winning the lottery

If there’s one legacy sequel that at least most of us can get behind for once, it has to be Indiana Jones. Indeed, after Harrison Ford’s iconic pulp hero seemed all done and dusted by way of the mediocre Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, everyone’s favorite archaeologist will hopefully get the swansong he deserves with Dial of Destiny.

The premise alone is already indicating a return to form for the whip-happy adventurer, who’s set to go toe-to-toe with Nazis once again, much like he did in the fan-favorite inaugural entry Raiders of the Lost Ark. With Mads Mikkelsen and Boyd Holbrook shoring up those ranks with what will no doubt be two more excellent villain performances, we bet that watching Indy give them the old one-two will be all the more satisfying.

Also donning the Nazi shoes in Dial of Destiny is Thomas Kretschmann, who’s been around the genre-fiction map quite a bit judging by such credits as Avengers: Age of Ultron, Spectre, and Peter Jackson’s King Kong. And yet, joining a franchise like Indiana Jones was beyond the actor’s wildest dreams.

In an interview with Screen Rant, Kretschmann remarked on the transcendental experience of working so closely with Ford, and compared becoming part of the movie to winning the lottery.

“When they come and make you part of something like this, it’s almost a little bit like you’ve won the lottery. Even though I’ve done so much, there’s always something else. We all grew up with Harrison Ford, right, and then you’re there, and then the first day of shooting, and the first take you do, right away, “Ah, that’s why Harrison Ford is Harrison Ford,” because there’s something you don’t learn, you can’t describe. My first first scene with him, the first day, he suddenly was so big in front of me — and we are the same size, he’s not bigger than me, but suddenly, I felt very small. I had to adjust to not f–k it up, these are the treats.”

Set in the year 1969 against the backdrop of Operation Paperclip, which involved NASA recruiting former Nazis to aid the United States in the Space Race. Dial of Destiny sees Jones and his goddaughter Helena Shaw go on an excursion to uncover a secret plan formulated by Jürgen Voller, an ex-Nazi involved with the program who wishes to use the moon landing to create what he believes is a better world, but we all know what Nazis actually mean when they say “better world.”

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny will release to theaters on June 30.