David Koepp on stepping away from scripting Indiana Jones 5

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

It's been well over a decade since the release of the last film in the INDIANA JONES franchise, but a fifth installment has been in development for quite some time under a variety of hands, including David Koepp, best known for scripting JURASSIC WORLD, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, SPIDER-MAN, as well as INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL.

While David Koepp was attached to pen INDIANA JONES 5 for a number of years, he stepped down in 2018 when Jonathan Kasdan (SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY) was brought in to replace him. Since then, Steven Spielberg also decided to step down as director, with James Mangold (LOGAN) slated to helm the sequel. While speaking with THR, Koepp touched upon how he felt about leaving INDIANA JONES 5 behind.

The reason Indiana Jones movies are so difficult is because it’s really difficult. (Laughs.) It’s hard. It has to be great. The first and third movies in that series are just utterly beloved, and ‘utterly beloved’ is a high bar. It’s really tough to get there. So, I did a couple versions of this last one that I thought were good; the last one, in particular. But it didn’t quite come together. Steven couldn’t do it in the end and whatever. It just didn’t come together. Sometimes, they do; sometimes, they don’t.

"But if there’s going to be another Indiana Jones movie," Koepp continued, "I think James Mangold is a great guy to explore it. Certainly, what he did with Logan was remarkable — with Scott Frank’s great, great script. So, we’ll see. But it’s okay. Usually, by the time you either get fired or they move on to somebody else or the project just evolves away from you — by that time, you’re secretly a little bit relieved because at least you don’t have to bang your head against it anymore." While it would seem that this would be good opportunity to reboot the franchise with a new actor (which is bound to happen eventually) as Indiana Jones, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy has said, "We’re working away, getting the script where we want it to be and then we’ll be ready to go. Harrison Ford will be involved, yeah. It’s not a reboot; it’s a continuation." While the next film will feature Ford as Indy, former Disney CEO Bob Iger told THR back in 2016 that they're definitely considering what comes next. "Right now, we’re focused on a reboot, or a continuum and then a reboot of some sort," Iger said. "Well, we’ll bring him back, then we have to figure out what comes next… We [got] Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones in the film. But then what’s the direction? I’ve had discussions about what the direction is, [but] I don’t want to get into it. I don’t think it reaches the scale of the universe of Star Wars, but I see making more. It won’t be just a one-off."

INDIANA JONES 5 has been delayed several times, and it currently slated to hit theaters on July 29, 2022, but I would imagine that date is dependent on when production on the film can get underway.