When Raiders of the Lost Ark came out in 1981, it captivated audiences with its fast-paced adventure and likable main character. Spielberg had crafted a beautifully trilogy of films by 1989 when the third Indiana Jones installment, The Last Crusade, entered theaters. 

This film ended with Jones riding off into the sunset, insinuating an end to the character; wrapping up his long adventure and character arc. Almost 20 years later, the money came knocking and Spielberg agreed to direct a fourth film. Harrison Ford reprised the role, proving skeptics wrong.

Even though the film has plenty of issues, it is still a Spielberg film. Characters from old films are reintroduced, and the ending is a fine one for the character, albeit not as fitting as the sunset ending from the third film.

In the years following the fourth installment, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, rumors floated around surrounding the possibility of a new actor stepping in to play Dr. Jones. Harrison Ford has made it abundantly clear that he wants nobody else stepping into the role. After that news came to light, any rumors of a Chris Pratt-led Indiana film simply disappeared. 

A few years after that, it came out that Harrison Ford would, in fact, be reprising the role for a final, fifth film. The rumors circulating the fifth movie were troubling, to say the least. Talk of rewrites floated up on a few occasions, and the ending was said to be messy because of this.

Spielberg did not return to direct this final Indiana Jones movie. Instead, James Mangold of Logan and Ford v. Ferrari stepped up to handle the Disney-led project. 

The fourth Indiana film was made prior to the Disney acquisition of Lucasfilm, George Lucas’ film production company, which is in charge of the Indiana movies. The acquisition, which occurred in 2012, led to many poorly written Star Wars films, an IP I don’t even bother to keep up with anymore due to over-saturation. 

All signs point to the idea that this movie simply didn’t need to be made. Harrison Ford is 80 years old, and many believed that this film would try to start some kind of “passing of the torch” to a new character.

Disney cannot bear to let a franchise live in the past. These rumors were proven true with the Cannes premier and early reviews for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.

This new film introduces tons and tons of new characters, something that we don’t need in the last film in an ongoing series.

Early reviews for the new Indiana Jones movie are rough, to say the least. These reviews cite Indiana Jones taking what seems to be a backseat for most of the film, allowing Disney to prop up new characters that could potentially replace the archeologist. 

This signals a larger, deep rooted issue within Disney’s plan for existing franchises. Their entire plan with Star Wars and now Indiana Jones is to showcase old characters (who are physically too old for the roles) around with the occasional CGI effects, and slowly cycle them out in order to introduce a new, young lead.

Nobody wants this. These names and franchises should have stayed where they were supposed to, in the 1980’s. As much as I’ll get excited for new Indiana Jones, it’s disheartening to see Disney try to squeeze every last dollar they can out of old successes. 

Hopefully, the company can focus on making new characters for audiences to fall in love with, instead of trying to piggyback off of big names.