If you are a big-time Hollywood player, one business model you would try to mimic would be the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But not everyone is able to piece those household-name characters together into one larger story, so there are other lessons that have to be taken away from the success of the MCU and applied to your movies.
This is what Harrison Ford is trying to apply to his upcoming Indiana Jones 5, which he will begin filming in roughly two months. The movie doesn’t have a title, and it’s still working on its script. But Ford told HeyUGuys recently that he has been inspired by the Marvel movies to do something very specific with a new Indiana Jones story, explaining:
I don’t really want to give them what they want to see, I want to give them something they didn’t anticipate. They are used to a degree of disappointment when you revisit. Certainly, the Marvel movies have made a spectacular example of a success [that] worked the other way around. They killed it! Well, we’re not going to make another Indiana Jones unless we are in a position to kill it. We want it to be the best.
It's easy to see why an actor like Harrison Ford, who is trying his best to find unique and exciting reasons to revive a beloved character like Indiana Jones, would look at what Marvel has accomplished and say, “Let’s do what those guys did!” Robert Downey Jr., as an example, played multiple versions of Tony Stark in his own Iron Man movies, in Captain America sequels, in Spider-Man spinoffs and in traditional Avengers films. Fatigue wasn’t an issue with the character. How does Indy replicate that?
Now, that doesn’t mean that Indiana Jones 5 immediately is going to break the bank like Avengers: Endgame. In the very same breath, Harrison Ford clarifies:
We’ve got some scheduling issues and a few script things to do, but we are determined to get it right before we get it made.
Imagine that. Getting it “right” before you get it made. They certainly didn’t do that with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, so I’m happy to hear they learned their lesson after that misfire.
We remain extremely curious as to what kind of story Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford want to tell with a fifth Indiana Jones movie. They can leap forward several decades, as they did to the 1950s with Crystal Skull. Maybe this next one is set in the 1970s? The key is coming up with the right MacGuffin for Indiana Jones to chase, and giving him a cool location to chase it.
We shall see, in time. Indiana Jones 5 is due to hit theaters on July 9, 2021. Will they figure out how to include Captain America as a character by then?
