During the Star Wars Celebration Europe, it was noted by Collider that ILM President Lynwen Brennan stated during a panel for "The Art of Storytelling" that Disney may be in the development stage of a new cinematic universe similar to what they have with the Marvel and "Star Wars" films but this time with the "Indiana Jones" franchise.
"Kiri Hart and her group have mapped out a story and timeline across multiple platforms many years in advance, many exhausting years in advance," Brennan stated. "We have a great honor to have responsibility for, so we want to be really careful with that. Not only for Star Wars but with Indiana Jones, which we're all really excited about as well".
Collider reports that just a while back Disney CEO Bob Iger said that the next film is indeed bringing back Harrison Ford to play Indiana Jones and then what comes after has yet to be decided. However, Brennan's statements now allude to a larger franchise that might include further sequels, prequels with a younger actor or even spin-offs.
However, the report does point out that the intention is likely to keep the Harrison Ford films as part of canon. This means there may not be any form of hard reboot. Instead, if a prequel were to be done with a younger actor as Indiana Jones, they will still be taking place in the same timeline as "Raiders of the Lost Ark."
GamesRadar points out that the role will be recast soon given that Ford is already 74 years old and may not be able to keep on making action films the way he used to. "Indiana Jones 5" may be the last with him as the older version and a future film may see Ford only in an introduction before it cuts back to the 1920s or 1930s with a younger actor.
"Indiana Jones 5" is set to premiere in 2019.
