Directed by James Mangold (“Ford v Ferrari,” “Logan”), the trailer for the fifth “Indiana Jones,” still technically untitled but colloquially known as “Indiana Jones 5” for now, is right around the corner. And you can tell because Lucasfilm—who debuted a thrilling but mostly detail-free trailer at Comic-Con this summer— is finally letting some details out of the bag in the lead-up to its release, which may be next week.
For one, we have the year it’s set, 1969, just over 12 years after “Indiana Jones And The Crystal Skull,” more or less. And the villains have been confirmed, Nazis once again (purportedly one of the reasons Steven Spielberg left the project, he felt that Indy had been there and done that). Wait, Nazis in 1969? They still existed?
Well, as screenwriter/playwright Jez Butterworth (“Ford v Ferrari”) noted, it’s part of history and an uncomfortable one at that. To beat Russia in the late ’60s space race, the U.S. turned to former Nazi scientists to get to the moon before the U.S.S.R.
“The simple fact is that the moon-landing program was run by a bunch of ex-Nazis,” Butterworth told Empire this week in a piece that also includes two new first-look images. “How ‘ex’ they are is the question. And it gets up Indy’s nose…”
Evidently, a man out of time, outdated, and lost in the 1960s is part of the ‘Indy 5’ story.
“It’s not just that the model of what a hero is has completely changed,” Butterworth said. “It’s not just that they’re looking for something where there’s nothing up there— it’s like Reno without the gambling, or whatever his line is. But the people that are behind it are, you know, his sworn enemies.”
We know Mads Mikkelsen is in the film, and as you’d probably guess, the stern-looking Dutch actor is playing one of the Nazis based on real-life Nazi-turned-NASA-engineer Wernher von Braun. “He’s a man who would like to correct some of the mistakes of the past,” Mikkelsen teased. “There is something that could make the world a much better place to live in. He would love to get his hands on it. Indiana Jones wants to get his hands on it as well. And so, we have a story.”
Boyd Holbrook (“Logan”) also plays a bad guy and an underling of Mikkelsen’s. “I’m a lapdog to Mads, and a crazy one at that,” he said.
And that’s all the details we get so far, but considering how much the film has been under wraps, that’s a lot. Who does the co-lead Phoebe Waller-Bridge play? Well, we already know she plays Helena, the goddaughter of Indiana Jones, and that composer John Williams described her character as “an adventurer and a femme fatale.”
Beyond that, we’ll have to wait, but again, that trailer is likely arriving very soon, so keep those eyes peeled. More images, courtesy of Empire, are below.
