Report: Steven Spielberg won’t direct Indiana Jones 5

Steven Spielberg, who guided Indiana Jones through Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Temple of Doom, The Last Crusade, and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, is throwing the whip to a new filmmaker to deliver the proposed fifth Indiana Jones movie.

A new report from Variety suggests that Spielberg will step down from the franchise on his own accord, leaving ample time for a new director to oversee the script and ramp up to production. Announced in March 2016, the movie was expected to hit theaters on July 19, 2019. A search for new writers bumped the production to July 10, 2020. Despite hiring Solo writer Jonathan Kasdan to pen a new script, the movie was bumped a second time to July 9, 2021. The director shuffle could spell another delay and a new release date.

Who could take over for Spielberg? The name in the ring is James Mangold, who’s coming off a major adult-oriented hit in Best Picture nominee Ford v Ferrari, and is best known for reinvigorating the X-Men franchise twice, with The Wolverine and Logan. There are no details on if Disney and Lucasfilm will court a new writer to join the project — Mangold mostly writes his own scripts — but the 77-year-old Harrison Ford remains attached to his role as Indy. Lucasfilm was not immediately able to confirm the news for Polygon.