Steven Spielberg exited 'Indiana Jones 5' after plot disagreements

The fifth Indiana Jones movie will be the first not to be directed by Steven Spielberg.

And according to an interview with screenwriter David Koepp, who was also working on the project, it was all down to a disagreement over the various elements involved in pulling the movie together.

Speaking to Den of Geek, Koepp said: “I tried a couple different versions with Steven and they all had some good stuff about them and they all had some stuff that didn’t work, which happens.

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“But it was just very hard to have everybody come together and have all the elements — Steven, Harrison (Ford), the script and Disney — come together at once. And it didn’t.

“When James Mangold came in and Steven stepped out, that was a pretty logical breaking point. It’s a gracious time to step out the door because I think the last thing a new director wants is the old director’s writer.”

Koepp explained though that their departure from the project was amicable, and he’s happy with the new directions it’s going in.

Mangold, director of Logan and Walk The Line, was announced as the movie's new director back in February, taking over from Spielberg, who has helmed all of the Indiana Jones movies.

Spielberg will stay on as a 'hands-on' producer of the movie, but with Koepp out too, it's not known who will script.

Jurassic Park writer Koepp was behind Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which received a lukewarm reception back in 2008.

Mangold has since said that he plans to push the franchise on, telling Comicbook.com in May: “You have to push something to someplace new, while also remembering the core reasons why everyone was gathered.”

The movie is slated for release in July, 2022.