Indiana Jones 5: new images and plot revealed

Fresh off Empire’s first look at Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones 5 via this month’s cover comes a batch of new images giving us a clear look at Ford’s older Indy, plus Mads Mikkelsen and Boyd Holbrook’s characters. Looking at Mikkelsen, he seems to be a dead ringer for Ronald Lacey’s Toht from Raiders of the Lost Ark, and indeed the Empire story confirms Jones will once again be fighting Nazis – in 1969. According to the report, the premise revolves around the space race, which, as screenwriter Jez Butterworth notes, “the simple fact is that the moon-landing program was run by a bunch of ex-Nazis.” He notes the conflict revolves around “how ‘ex’ they are is the question. And it gets up Indy’s nose…”

The story reveals that while Mikkelsen may look like Toht, he’s actually playing a character named Voller, who is apparently based on Wernher von Braun. Butterworth notes that he’s a character who wants to correct some of the mistakes of the past. “There is something that could make the world a much better place to live in. He would love to get his hands on it. Indiana Jones wants to get his hands on it as well. And so, we have a story.”

To me, this sounds like the long-rumoured time travel aspect is happening, which is pretty exciting, as who wouldn’t like to see what Indiana Jones was up to during WW2? As Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was set in 1938, and then Kingdom of the Crystal Skull picked up in 1957, that leaves us a whole chunk of time that could be explored. Will Indy be meeting up with a younger version of himself? I suppose we’ll see when Disney releases the long-awaited trailer, which should also reveal the title, sometime in the next week or so (I would expect it before Thanksgiving).

In the meantime, our own Alex Maidy saw the teaser trailer at D23 – here’s his rundown: