Posted in: Disney, Movies | Tagged: harrison ford, indiana jones, Indiana Jones 5, indiana jones and the last crusade, lucasfilm, raiders of the lost ark

Indiana Jones 5: Opening to Feature CG Raiders Era Harrison Ford

Published Fri, 25 Nov 2022 12:47:10 -0600

by Tom Chang

Last updated Fri, 25 Nov 2022 13:12:42 -0600

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Director James Mangold is pulling out all the stops when it comes to trying to make Indiana Jones relevant again, taking full advantage of all the technology at his disposal. While creator George Lucas and director Steven Spielberg did everything they could to rely on practical effects in the first three films, the fifth Indiana Jones will literally attempt to recreate that magic thanks to CG. While Lucasfilm had a few unremarkable CG sequences in the franchise's fourth film, 2008's Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, involving monkeys, atomic bombs, and ants, Mangold will build on Indy's existing history against the Nazis in 1981's Raiders of the Lost Ark and 1989's The Last Crusade for Indy 5's as they will be featured again in the upcoming film.

Indiana Jones 5: Opening to Feature CG Raiders Era Harrison Ford — Lucasfilm

Bringing Back Raiders-Era Indiana Jones

Indiana Jones 5's opening sequence will feature a de-aged Raiders-era Harrison Ford showing the 80-year-old actor back as his 39-year-old self. "I wanted the chance to dive into this kind of full-on George-and-Steven old picture and give the audience an adrenaline blast," Mangold told Empire Magazine. "And then we fall out, and you find yourself in 1969 so that the audience doesn't experience the change between the '40s and '60s as an intellectual conceit, but literally experiences the buccaneering spirit of those early days… and then the beginning of now."

Lucasfilm has been at the forefront of using de-aging CG with its Star Wars franchise with its use on 2016's Rogue One with Carrie Fisher and Disney+ TV series The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett with Mark Hamill. Ironically, Ford, who played Star Wars' Han Solo, will do the same for Lucasfilm's other biggest franchise Indiana Jones. "This is the first time I've seen it where I believe it," Ford said. "It's a little spooky. I don't think I even want to know how it works, but it works. Doesn't make me want to be young, though. I'm glad to have earned my age." For more, including comments from producer Kathleen Kennedy, you can check out the interview here. The film also stars Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen, Boyd Holdbrook, Toby Jones, Antonio Banderas, Thomas Kretschmann, Shaunette Renée Wilson, and John Rhys-Davies, and comes to theaters on June 30, 2023.