By the time the fifth installment in the Indiana Jones franchise comes to theaters next summer, Harrison Ford will be 80 years old and making just his second outing as the iconic archeologist since 1989, so it’s no surprise that James Mangold’s globetrotting blockbuster will mark his final time donning the fedora and cracking the whip.
Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is still a touchy subject for many longtime fans of the series, so we’re all hoping that Indy’s swansong hews much closer to the original trilogy than the polarizing fourth movie. Ever since Disney acquired Lucasfilm, we’ve been inundated with rumors about potential plans to continue milking the brand without its leading man, and a new rumor from Giant Freakin Robot claims that Indiana Jones will continue on in Ford’s absence.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge has been cast in a major role in the project, with GFR claiming that she’s poised to take up the mantle and become the property’s new figurehead moving forward. Not only that, but Shia LaBeouf is also touted for a return that would see the Fleabag creator’s mystery character and Mutt Williams team up for new adventures.
Of course, we shouldn’t overlook the fact that Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy explicitly stated that the next movie would be the last one, nor the recent wave of negative publicity to have engulfed LaBeouf’s personal life yet again.
In essence, the unconfirmed speculation posits that we’d be getting more Indiana Jones movies without Indiana Jones, starring a new hero we haven’t met yet and another that not a lot of people cared for, played by an actor who has a troubled and volatile offscreen history, which hardly sounds like the ideal way to generate excitement.