During a press junket for his new film BFG, director Steven Spielberg revealed what exactly George Lucas’ role will be in the upcoming Indiana Jones 5. Here’s what he had to say:
“George is gonna to be an executive producer on it with me. … I would never make an Indiana Jones film without George Lucas. That’d be insane.”
There has a lot of speculation if Lucas would be involved, and if so, to what extent. Lucas co-wrote and produced the previous four films, but that was when Lucas Films was still under his control. Now that Disney has the reigns on the franchise, it doesn’t look like anything will change creatively. Although it is odd to thing Lucas will be a hired to work for his old company.
In related news, Disney exec Bob Igor sat down with THR to discuss the future of the franchise. When asked if there would be a series of films, creating Indiana Jones Film Universe like Star Wars, this is what he had to say:
“Not like Star Wars, but we hope… right now, we’re focused on a reboot, or a continuum and then a reboot of some sort. Well, we’ll bring him back, then we have to figure out what comes next. That’s what I mean. It’s not really a reboot, it’s a boot — a reboot. I don’t know. We [got] Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones in the film. But then what’s the direction? I’ve had discussions about what the direction is, [but] I don’t want to get into it. I don’t think it reaches the scale of the universe of Star Wars, but I see making more. It won’t be just a one-off.”
While it’s fantastic to see Ford returning at least one more time, the likelihood of multiple returns is slim. Spielberg has said that he won’t be killing off the character, but Ford’s age seems to limit the number of films down the pike.
Sources: Movie Plot, THR, THR