Indiana Jones 5 Has Been Pushed Back Again

Harrison Ford Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

It seems that Indiana Jones 5 is having a difficult time establishing a reasonable timeline for its production. While originally scheduled to come out in July 2019 (a.k.a. next summer), news broke in late January that the would-be blockbuster was delayed a full year. Now we are basically seeing a repeat of that report, as now the Steven Spielberg movie isn't going to be coming out until July 9, 2021.

Rumors began floating earlier this summer that Indiana Jones 5 would need to be delayed again, and now Variety has confirmed it. The trade doesn't specify the exact nature of the delay, but what is on the table is that we shouldn't expect to see the next chapter in this legendary series for another three years. Presumably this means that filming will now begin some time in the middle of 2020, which means that there will be a whole lot of time for the internet to speculate about it before it actually starts becomes a real thing.

One very plausible excuse for the delay is the simple fact that the production doesn't yet have a script that will work. It was only a couple weeks ago that we learned Jonathan Kasdan has come aboard Indiana Jones 5 to replace screenwriter David Koepp - who notoriously wrote Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It would seem that nobody in the making of this sequel feels there is any extreme reason to rush and get it made, and hopefully that will ultimately be for the betterment of the film (whether it does or doesn't get made).

Of course, it's noteworthy at this stage that the whole idea of Indiana Jones 5 doesn't inspire a ton of faith. It's a long-awaited sequel to a long-awaited sequel that hasn't aged well in the pop culture court of opinion, and release date delays have a tendency to hurt audience confidence. There surely is some demand out there for the sequel, as there are fans of every franchise who want to see a billion movies made, but it's getting harder to believe in this one.

What mythical mystery will the film center on? How will it connect back to the original trilogy? Who can we expect in the cast other than Harrison Ford? These are all questions that we won't be getting answers to for a long time, and because of the secrecy that will surely surround the feature, some of those reveals won't come until Indiana Jones 5 is up on the big screen. Between now and then, stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for all the latest updates, and to what movies are actually hitting theaters relatively soon, be sure to check out our 2018 release schedule.

Eric Eisenberg
Assistant Managing Editor

Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.