It will still be a while before we see Indiana Jones back on the big screen (Indiana Jones 5 is currently scheduled for a July 10, 2020 release), but screenwriter David Koepp has revealed to EW that Shia LaBeouf’s character Mutt Williams will not be returning.
“Harrison plays Indiana Jones, that I can certainly say… and the Shia LaBeouf character is not in the film,” Koepp said. But what’s the status of the film? “We’re plugging away at it. In terms of when we would start, I think that’s up to Mr. Spielberg and Mr. Ford… I know we’ve got a script we’re mostly happy with. Work will be endless, of course, and ongoing, and Steven just finished shooting The Post… If the stars align, hopefully it’ll be his next film.”
And what is the MacGuffin this time around? “Some precious artifact that they’re all looking for,” Koepp added.
Spoiler alert for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull if you haven’t seen the film, but Mutt Williams was revealed to be Jones and Marion Ravenwood’s son. At the end of the film, after Indy and Marion are married, a gust of wind also blows Indy’s fedora off a coat rack and it lands at Mutt’s feet. He picks it up and is about to put it on before Jones takes it from him and puts it on his own head instead.
While Mutt will not be in the next film, Disney does plan on continuing the franchise beyond the fifth installment. “The one thing I will tell you is I’m not killing off Harrison [Ford] at the end of it,” director Steven Spielberg said previously, while Disney’s Bob Iger cryptically stated: “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.”
Spielberg directed all four previous films. Franchise veterans Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall will produce the fifth film as well.
Famed archaeologist and explorer Indiana Jones was introduced in 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark – one of AFI’s 100 Greatest American Films of All Time – and later thrilled audiences in 1984’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, 1989’s Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The four films have brought in nearly $2 billion at the global box office.
