When moviegoers head to theaters to experience Indiana Jones 5, they will see a “de-aged” Harrison Ford, according to director James Mangold.
The fifth installment of the untitled film has an opening sequence that will take place in the years depicted between The Last Crusade (1989) and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008).
“I wanted the chance to dive into this kind of full-on George-and-Steven old picture and give the audience an adrenaline blast,” Mangold told Empire. “And then we fall out, and you find yourself in 1969. So that the audience doesn’t experience the change between the ‘40s and ‘60s as an intellectual conceit, but literally experiences the buccaneering spirit of those early days… and then the beginning of now.”
Ford, who is 80 years old, shot new footage for the film that will be matched to archived material of his younger self using computer software. The original jacket that Ford wore on Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) was also pulled out from storage and replicated for the new film.
“My hope is that, although it will be talked about in terms of technology, you just watch it and go, ‘Oh my God, they just found footage. This was a thing they shot 40 years ago,’” producer Kathleen Kennedy told the magazine. “We’re dropping you into an adventure, something Indy is looking for, and instantly you have that feeling, ‘I’m in an Indiana Jones movie.’”
For Ford, seeing himself “de-aged” in a brand-new film is “a little spooky” and doesn’t “want to know how it works” and added, “This is the first time I’ve seen it where I believe it.” However, despite seeing himself young again, Ford says he doesn’t want to be that age again, “I’m glad to have earned my age.”
Indiana Jones 5 is scheduled to be released on June 30, 2023, and it also stars Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen, Boyd Holbrook, Thomas Kretschmann, Toby Jones, Antonio Banderas and John Rhys-Davies.
