The next Indiana Jones movie is happening. Harrison Ford will be back in the hat, but that's about the only thing that we expect to be familiar with when we actually see the new film. For the first time, Steven Spielberg will not direct Ford, as Logan's James Mangold has been tapped to take over the franchise and Mangold appears to have just revealed a little something about the next film, specifically, its date and its location.
James Mangold made an offhand comment on Twitter recently about how great he thought The Velvet Underground was. The statement apparently came about because "all the movies" Mangold is currently working on are set in '60s era New York City, which would seem to indicate that's where Indiana Jones 5 is set.
The date itself isn't that shocking. As weird as it might feel to set an Indiana Jones movie in the 1960s, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was set in 1957, and it's been 13 years since that movie was made and so Harrison Ford, and by extension Indy himself, is that much older. You could technically set the movie in the 1970s and it would be accurate chronologically, though, of course, there's some wiggle room in there.
As far as the location goes, Indiana Jones is certainly no stranger to New York, as the character has taught college archeology courses there in the past. But it seems unlikely that James Mangold is thinking of a couple of scenes that might set up a story when he thinks of New York here. It's more likely that if Mangold is talking about Indiana Jones 5, more of the movie than we might expect will take place in NYC.
This would certainly be a change for the franchise as Indiana Jones movies are usually about traveling around the world looking for ancient artifacts. Even if a lot of the new movie will take place in New York City, it doesn't mean we won't still get that, but it does make one wonder why more of the movie might take place "at home."
Perhaps the ancient objects that Indiana Jones will be dealing with this time around will be Native American in origin. Or perhaps the threat that Indy is fighting against this time will be domestic rather than foreign, and so the chase for the mystical MacGuffin will bring Indy stateside sooner rather than later.
If nothing else, an Indiana Jones movie that spends a lot of time in New York City will certainly be different, and that's not usually a bad thing. Unless the way your movie is different is to include space aliens, then it maybe is. Indiana Jones 5 is currently set for release in July of 2022, so it should be going in front of cameras later this year. When it does we'll likely have a better idea of just where, and when, the movie will take place.
