Wait, An Indiana Jones 5 Trailer Dropped?!?!?

How did I not know this happened?!? A brand-new trailer for Indiana Jones 5 has somehow dropped and I was completely unaware for nearly a week now, though maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing.

Okay, I don’t want to start off this article with a negative spin, but this trailer may have confirmed some massive, horrifyingly awful leaks about this latest edition to the Indiana Jones saga.

Still, I’m glad we’re finally seeing an Indiana Jones movie in the theaters again. I was a six-year-old kid the last time the Indiana Jones franchise was doing its rounds in the theaters with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, so it must be no surprise that I’m super excited for this movie.

I’ve been a massive Indiana Jones fan for as long as I can remember, and I must have watched the four movies at least twenty times each.

This is one of the greatest Hollywood movie franchises of all-time as it not only has some of the most iconic characters (i.e.: Indiana Jones, Marion Ravenwood, Sallah, Henry Jones, Short Round, Mola Ram, Major Arnold Toht, etc.)  and sets associated with it (1930’s Egypt, 1940’s Austria and Jordan, 1930’s India, and 1960’s Amazon Rainforest), but also some of the most ingenious minds in Hollywood history (George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, John Williams, etc.) behind its production.

It’s one of the iconic franchises ever made…which is why I’m extremely nervous about it being in Disney’s hands.

We’ve already seen the shambolic direction the company took Star Wars, another iconic Hollywood franchise, with the release of the Sequel movies. Of course, Disney has produced its own share of great Hollywood franchises (Mickey Mouse, Pixar, Marvel, etc.), but they’ve had a pretty poor track record of late.

And this movie, despite its trailer having some promise, seems to be destined to be just as problematic.

I mean, the title of the movie, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, is kind of weak. Lucasfilm and Disney have had nearly 15 years to think of a title for the (probably) last installment of this franchise with Harrison Ford as the titular character and they could only thing of “Dial of Destiny”. What even is that?

And the main plot of this story sounds like the worst one to date: a time travel story that sends Indiana Jones and his goddaughter, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, back in time to meet his 1940’s self and fight against the Nazis…again.

Like I said, there is some promise to this movie as the legend Harrison Ford is back as Indiana Jones, John Williams is doing the score once more (perhaps for his final film), James Mangold (the director of Logan, The Wolverine, Ford vs. Ferrari, and 3:10 to Yuma) is behind the cameras, and the supporting cast is stacked with fantastic actors and actresses.

Mads Mikkelsen and Boyd Holbrook are great actors that can play a villain role to perfection, Antonio Banderas is an Academy Award, Golden Globe, and Emmy nominated actor, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge is an Emmy, Golden Globe, BAFTA, and SAG award winning actress and brilliant comedy writer.

Out of all the supporting cast, I’m most excited to see how Waller-Bridge’s character plays off the stoic, heroic Indiana Jones. Given how Phoebe Waller-Bridge has won numerous awards for her comedy chops, I’m presuming her character will fill in as a ‘comedic sidekick’ (so to speak) to Jones as she accompanies him during his time travel adventure back into the past to fight off the Nazis. Again.

And this leads me to my criticisms.

I don’t want to complain too much but hasn’t the Nazi-villain thing already been done to perfection in this franchise. There’s really no need to go back to the 1940’s and fight the despicable soldiers of the Third Reich for a third time as Raiders of the Lost Arc and The Last Crusade portrayed Indy defeating these guys masterfully.

Those two movies are without a doubt the best the franchise has to offer and concluded Jones struggles against the Nazis in a satisfying way with him riding off with his father, Salah, and Marcus Brody into the sunset in The Last Crusade. This new story seems (key word here) like a cheap, nostalgia-baiting rehash of those movies, which is something Disney has been guilty of in the past. And especially with Lucasfilm projects.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens ring any bells?

Anyway, the part that scares me the most is how accurate some of the story leaks for this movie seem to be playing out with this trailer. Now, before I continue, I’m warning anyone who doesn’t want to be spoiled to look away right now as I may be revealing a major spoiler for the end of the movie.

YOU’VE BEEN WARNED.

Alright, for anyone who wishes to be spoiled: supposedly, the young Indiana Jones is going to die in this movie in order to save Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s character from death, which would then erase the old Indiana Jones out of history all together.

So, in other words, all of the Indiana Jones movies we’ve grown to love over the years would be rendered non-canon as they ‘didn’t happen’ with the early demise of Indiana Jones in this latest Disney movie. Can we all just agree how mindbogglingly stupid of an idea that would be if this movie transpires in that fashion?

Disney might as well give away the IP rights to Indiana Jones and the franchise for free as there won’t be a single Indy fan in the world who will stand by and watch Indiana Jones get forcefully stripped from his own movie franchise by a bunch of talentless executives.

Thankfully, James Mangold has already come out and forcefully squashed these rumors, so there’s probably nothing to worry about. Praise be to Indy’s Fedora! And I’m glad he did or else this movie could have become very toxic very quickly. Though, it’s still justifiable to be skeptical until the final product releases in theaters…

Which is exactly what I’ll be doing as I’m going to be one of the first people in line to see Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny when it comes out June 30th, 2023.

Images Source: Featured Image: (Disney/Lucasfilm) (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny | Official Trailer – YouTube)

In Text Image 1: (Disney/Lucasfilm) (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny | Official Trailer – YouTube)

In Text Image 1: (Disney/Lucasfilm) (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny | Official Trailer – YouTube)

In Text Image 1: (Disney/Lucasfilm) (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny | Official Trailer – YouTube)