Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny Photo: Lucasfilm Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny is, um, dialing into theaters next week. The fifth installment in the franchise lands in theaters on June 30, more than 40 years after the series’ first adventure, Raiders Of The Lost Ark, with 80-year-old Harrison Ford being the only member of the original Jones trio—star Harrison Ford, writer George Lucas, and director Steven Spielberg—returning for a final crack of the whip.But with the movie finally making it into theaters, we thought it would be fun to do a little history lesson of our own. After all, more time has passed between 2008’s Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull and Dial Of Destiny than it took Spielberg, Lucas, and Ford to release the first three movies—to much better results, considering the responses to the post-2000s sequels. Nevertheless, the origins of a five-movie series go back to before Raiders Of The Lost Ark was released. December 1979Variety reports that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg inked a deal for five Indiana Jones movies. True to George Lucas’ savvy business acumen following his groundbreaking sequel and toy rights for Star Wars, Lucas and Spielberg cobbled together one of the most lucrative agreements of all time. According to Jim Smith’s 2003 biography of Lucas (via AFI), the deal included “$20 million upfront, and 80% of all film rentals, earning profits from box-office returns before Paramount recouped its investment” and “a large share of four Indiana Jones sequels, merchandising, and licensing rights.” May 2008With the release of Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull on May 22, 2008, journalists began their endless search for more Indiana Jones movies. It was around this time that Harrison Ford told USA Today that he’d be interested in making another one—as long as it doesn’t take 20 years. (It only took 15). Furthermore, Lucas tells Fox News that he has an idea for a fifth movie. “I haven’t even told Steven or Harrison this,“ he said at the Cannes Film Festival premiere. ”But I have an idea to make Shia the lead character next time and have Harrison come back like Sean Connery did in the last movie. I can see it working out.”“I know Harrison would love to,” LaBeouf predicted at the time (via MTV News). “I know that Harrison, when he’s 80, will still be jacked. Is there going to be an 80-year-old Indiana Jones? No one can say never.”“Mutt’s pretty wild [but] it’s all about what the public feels. I know if it’s received well, that’s a pretty definite indicator. If it’s received well, I don’t imagine they would stop making them.”August 2008Responding to the general public’s outright refusal to accept Mutt Williams as a canonical character, George Lucas made a rare defense of his creative process by telling MTV News that Mutt will not be the focus of the fifth movie. February 2010Harrison Ford gets the BBC’s hopes up by telling the outlet that he, Lucas, and Spielberg have agreed on a “germ of an idea, and we’re seeing what comes of it.” October 2012Complicating the process of turning germs into movies, George Lucas went ahead and sold Lucasfilm to Disney for the tidy sum of $4.05 billion. While Indiana Jones falls under Lucasfilm’s purview, Bob Iger told shareholders in 2012 that there were some “encumbrances” with the franchise because Paramount distributed those movies—remember that five-picture deal? “There are very little encumbrance to make and distribute films going forward and exploit characters on multiple platforms,” Iger said. “There are some encumbrances with Indiana Jones and that is from Paramount. We didn’t ascribe any value to the Indiana Jones franchise. It doesn’t factor into the equation with this acquisition.”December 2013Then-Chairman of Walt Disney Studios Alan Horn confirms that no progress on Indiana Jones 5 has been made. “We haven’t done anything,” he told Variety. “We don’t have a story. We need a story.” Asked and answered. February 2015Deadline starts up the rumor mill by reporting, “Steven Spielberg wants Chris Pratt to anchor the rebirth of Indiana Jones.” Obviously, Pratt still managed to turn into the box office star of 2023, with the twin release of Super Mario Bros. and Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3. This also served as the announcement that Spielberg would direct Indian Jones 5. May 2015Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy tells Vanity Fair that a fifth Indiana Jones movie “will one day be made inside this company. When it will happen, I’m not quite sure. We haven’t started working on a script yet, but we are talking about it.” Okay, so no change from 2013.December 2015Kathleen Kennedy, once again, deprives the world of Indiana Jones 5 news. “We’re all trying to figure out when the right time is to step back in,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. Harrison really wants to do it; Steven really wants to do it. We’ve kicked around a couple of story ideas, but beyond that, I don’t know yet. I think there will be one, we’ll certainly move forward with Indy. But right now, everybody’s just focused on Star Wars.Interesting aside: Her comments on a then-unreleased Last Jedi. THR: How far are you into Rian Johnson’s Episode VIII?KK: We’ve thought this all through. The story group has put together a very carefully thought-through strategic plan for how we’re developing the stories and what those stories are and targeting filmmakers. We’ve looked at it up through, I would say, 2019, Episode IX.March 2016Disney announces that Harrison Ford and Steven Spielberg are returning for Indiana Jones 5. “Indiana Jones is one of the greatest heroes in cinematic history, and we can’t wait to bring him back to the screen in 2019,” Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn said in a statement. “It’s rare to have such a perfect combination of director, producers, actor and role, and we couldn’t be more excited to embark on this adventure with Harrison and Steven.”August 2016Steven Spielberg tells Empire, “We have a MacGuffin, that’s all I can say.” And that’s all he says. We have to assume at this point in the process, the MacGuffin was the script to Indiana Jones 5. October 2016Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull screenwriter and frequent Spielberg collaborator David Koepp tells Collider that George Lucas is not involved with the writing of Indiana Jones 5. He also explains the importance of MacGuffins in the Jonesiverse. “I think that what [Indy] looks for and when he looks for it dictates what the movie’s gonna be. So the selection of the MacGuffin is everything. I think Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, being set in 1957 there was a conscious desire to say, ’Much like two of the other ones were World War II movies set in the 30s and early 40s, this is ‘57 so a lot of our influences are gonna be science-fiction movies.’ You got that with the original [script], Jeb Stuart took the first shot at it with Indiana Jones and the Saucer Men from Mars. That was a really conscious decision that dictated a lot about what the story would be and what the movie would be like, and I think that was followed through on really nicely. I thought Steve did a really good job with that. I don’t know that the idea was most suited to an Indiana Jones movie, but that was what we did. So we tried to be very careful with the selection of the MacGuffin and the eras to give ourselves as much latitude to make the best kind of Indiana Jones movie that we most want to see. Learning how that’s the importance of the choice of the MacGuffin is a big deal.”April 2017Disney pushes Indiana Jones’ release date to 2020. April 2018Disney delays Indiana Jones 5 again. Variety chalks this up to “key members of the creative team have yet to sign off on a finished script.” That day, Collider reported that Disney hired Jonathan Kasdan (Solo, Willow) to do a rewrite. July 2018Disney gives Indiana Jones a brand new release date, July 9, 2021, that the movie will also miss. February 2020Seeing as there’s nothing on the horizon that could possibly prevent this film from hitting its release date, Steven Spielberg officially passes the fedora to director James Mangold. Though he would not direct the film, he remained a producer. Since this time, Spielberg directed two of the best films of his career. December 2020After 12 years of digging in the dirt, Disney announces that Indiana Jones 5 will begin shooting in spring 2021 for a July 2022 release. It’s so fun to pass judgment on the past, but Disney spent so much effort assigning release dates for this stupid movie. February 2022Producer Frank Marshall tweets out a picture of a frankly pretty dope Indiana Jones hat to announce “that’s a wrap” on the movie. It only took 14 years. May 2022The official Indiana Jones account tweets a photo of Indy in silhouette, kicking off marketing season for the film. Feeling somewhat bullish considering the picture has wrapped, Disney announces via the account that the movie will be released in 2023. At Star Wars Celebration, Harrison Ford made a very, very patient public aware that Indiana Jones 5 will hit theaters in June 2023. December 2022Disney releases the first teaser trailer for Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny, a film with a fantastic title. The movie also gives the Jones faithful their first glimpse of a very smooth-faced, de-aged Harrison Ford in the lead role. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny | Teaser TrailerApril 2023Disney released a second t
