Artnewspress : In the past few weeks, talk about Indiana Jones 5 has reached an all time high since Harrison Ford has been busy doing press for Call Of The Wild. Plus, word on the street is James Mangold may be taking over for Steven Spielberg as director. As discussions about the franchise are back, it’s opening an old wound known as 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Over a decade later, the fourth Indy movie is still widely disliked, and fans are understandably worried about how and why the franchise should continue from an all-time low. But hey, don’t take it out on Shia LaBeouf.
Before you get stressed about seeing Mutt and his greaser hair again, know that the chances of Shia LaBeouf returning for Indiana Jones 5 are quite low. At one stage of the script-writing process back in 2017, David Koepp said the character would not be in the film. Over the years, Indiana Jones 5 has gone through quite a few rewrites and shuffled around its writers, but Koepp is one who came back onto the project last year to say “I think we’ve got a good idea this time.” Alright, that’s not the most confident words to hear from a creative, but it’s what we have.
So while Shia LaBeouf’s return to Indiana Jones isn’t looking good right now, it’s not a half bad idea. Now that the franchise has got its “shocker!” lineage storyline out of the way in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, a trope Lucasfilm is all too known for with Star Wars, having the actor return for the fifth movie could actually be a good idea. Let’s talk it through:
Shia LaBeouf Is A Better Choice Now To Join Indiana Jones Than He Used To Be
Let’s think back to 2008 for a moment, as Shia LaBeouf was in a very different place in his career. He was the golden boy of the Transformers franchise, star of Disturbia and Disney Channel breakout star. The actor was in his early 20s when Kingdom of the Crystal Skull hit theaters. At the time, it might have felt like the franchise was trying to fit a trendy actor into its thread in order to draw in a larger audience and pass off the hat and whip to the next generation. The storyline did revolve around Mutt finding out he was the son of Indiana Jones, and that’s part of what ticked off fans too.