Indiana Jones 5 has been going through some major ups and downs over the last few months. First it lost long-time scribe David Koepp, who wrote the last Indiana Jones film, and then it saw its release date pushed back from 2020 to 2021. All of those bad breaks were painting a dour picture for the project, but a recent revelation will give fans of the movie some good news.
George Lucas will not be involved with the project in any capacity.
For better or worse, Lucas has earned a bad reputation since his work on the Star Wars prequels that fans won’t let him live down. He exacerbated the issue with his questionable work as creative figure on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull with the usage of aliens, leading to what many consider the worst movie in the franchise.
His possible involvement in the new film in the series had fans very angsty, but they can now breathe a sigh of relief. Producer Frank Marshall confirmed that George Lucas will not be involved in Indiana Jones 5.
I love being with George and having his input, but life changes and we’re moving on. He moved on. We’re very respectful of the original intentions of the movie, certainly Harrison’s character. The serialization of what the original intention was. I’d love to have George there. I love being around George and working with him, obviously. It’ll be a little different, because the ideas are coming from a different place now.
The news is quite surprising. George Lucas has a close relationship with series director Steven Spielberg (and Frank Marshall) and even though fans aren’t fond of him, that doesn’t seem like a reason for him not to be involved in the project. Reading into the tea leaves, it seems more likely Lucas is letting go of his past projects.
The polarizing director let go of his massively popular Star Wars franchise in 2012 when he sold it to Disney and now he is passing on partaking in the development of Indiana Jones 5, a franchise he helped jumpstart with Spielberg.
If that makes George Lucas happier then more power to him. It’s tough to be in the public eye when fans are quite negative toward you. On the off chance that Indiana Jones 5 runs into the same issues as Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, fans won’t be able to use him as a scapegoat.
