George Lucas ‘not involved’ in Indiana Jones 5

George Lucas’s first iconic creation ‘Star Wars’ has already been shepherded to huge critical and commercial success without him – and it seems much the same is happening with Indiana Jones.

With Lucasfilm now in the hands of Disney, a fifth Indy movie has been on the cards for a while now, with star Harrison Ford and director Steven Spielberg confirmed to return.

However, it appears that the series creator George Lucas is not involved in any capacity.

Fan starts petition for Tarantino to direct Deadpool
Bruce Lee homage in John Wick 2
Star Wars: We’ll learn Rey’s parentage in Episode VIII, says Daisy Ridley

Speaking to Collider, screenwriter David Koepp says Lucas is “not [involved in ‘Indiana Jones 5’], to my knowledge. I’ve had no contact with him.”

While Lucas neither directed nor wrote the screenplays on any of the existing four ‘Indiana Jones’ films, the character is his creation, and he conceived the stories on all the films as well as serving as executive producer.

In this capacity, Lucas had final say on most key aspects; this proved controversial when he vetoed Frank Darabont’s original script for the fourth film entitled ‘Indiana Jones and the City of the Gods,’ and hired Koepp to pen what became ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.’

Spielberg and Ford had reportedly loved Darabont’s script, and the general consensus from industry insiders is that it would have made for something much better than the somewhat divisive 2008 movie we ended up with.

Koepp, for his part, admits ‘Crystal Skull’ has its failings, saying “I don’t know that the idea was most suited to an Indiana Jones movie.” In the screenwriter’s defence, it was at Lucas’s insistence that aliens were brought into the mix.

While naturally Koepp avoids giving anything away about the fifth ‘Indiana Jones’ film’s story, he promises it’s “going really well; I really like our idea,” and jokes, “All I can say is that there’s lots of aliens and Indy dies at the end (laughs). Lots of hiding in lead-lined refrigerators, aliens, and he dies. Should go over very well.”

The as-yet untitled movie will hopefully go into production late 2017, and is set to hit screens in July 2019.

Picture Credit: WENN, Lucasfilm