“Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” was supposed to be the sequel that killed off the Indians Jones franchise. It attempted to pass the torch (and the franchise) to Indy’s son Mutt (Shia LeBeouf), but not many bought that idea.
The film was poorly received but did make nearly $800M at the global box office. According to Kathleen Kennedy (via Cinemablend), the Lucasfilm CEO believes that the weak story was the reason why the fourth instalment failed to register with fans.
When you strip out the expectations, ‘Crystal Skull’ wasn’t a terrible movie, but it was a disappointing one. Spielberg admitted it. Ford admitted it. Now Kennedy joins in their disappointment.
Fact of the matter is that the ‘Crustal Skull’ screenplay was clunky, it took them almost 20 years to write something concrete and all they could come up with was a half-cooked plot about aliens and nazis. At least, George Lucas won't have anything to do with the story of this upcoming fifth film, which is great. However, another part of the reason the last Indy didn't work was that you had to suspend disbelief and pretend that a 70 year old Harrison Ford could look believable within all that action.
Ford shot this latest Indiana Jones, being released next summer, when he had just turned 80. He seems to be in good shape for his age, but it will still look preposterous having him do stunts at his age. The other factor people fail to consider is that the first three films, all released in the ‘80s, had a vintage B-movie matinee vibe that I don’t believe you can necessarily replicate in these self-aware times. I hope I’m wrong, but I’m a little skeptical filmmaker James Mangold and Ford can pull this latest one off.
Edward Berger seems to have settled on what comes next. His Lance Armstrong biopic, starring Austin Butler, is now holding casting calls, with production eyed for January.