Bad News Just Dropped For Indiana Jones 5
Indiana Jones' next adventure will have to wait.
As the COVID-19 crisis keeps public spaces like movie theaters shuttered and people at home with no end currently in sight, major movie studios are making tough decisions and holding releases until the world can return to some semblance of normalcy (whenever that may be). However, as that turns out, it's pretty bad news for some movies, especially as opening dates shuffle around and rapidly change in a desperate attempt to figure out when it will be safe to encourage people to go to the movies again.
According to Deadline, Disney has made some serious changes to its upcoming release schedule, moving some movies directly to their streaming platform Disney+ and shifting others to much later release dates throughout the fall as the summer looks more and more up in the air. In a troubling time for the movie industry, where the fate of movie theaters remains uncertain and the entire summer season — typically one of the industry's strongest stretches — will likely stay dark, some films are faring better than others by scoring earlier release dates.
Unfortunately for the next Indiana Jones film, which was originally slated for a July 9, 2021 release, the sheer number of finished or nearly-finished films slated for 2020 releases now pushed back to the following year have made 2021 entirely too crowded for Indy to join in. Per Deadline's report, Lucasfilm's fifth Indiana Jones movie — which will be directed by James Mangold — is now set to hit theaters on July 29, 2022.
Indiana Jones 5 has faced setbacks before
Sadly, this isn't the first time ol' Captain Dynamite, Scourge of the Kaiser has been hit with a hurdle along the road to his fifth movie's release. Beyond the fact that the flick has been in the works for nearly four years, it was intended to be a blockbuster set for release in the most sweltering summer month of 2019. That planned July 19, 2019 debut, which Disney announced in March 2016, obviously didn't pan out for Indiana Jones 5. In April 2017, it was announced that Indiana Jones 5 had been delayed to July 10, 2020.
Flash forward to June 2018, and there was a shake-up behind the scenes: Solo: A Star Wars Story scribe Jonathan Kasdan came aboard and replaced screenwriter David Koepp. A script being reworked that late in the game meant two things: Indy 5 wouldn't be able to begin filming in April 2019 as planned, and because of that, wouldn't launch in July 2020. Thus, the film was moved yet again to July 9, 2021. Now, Indiana Jones won't make it to that premiere date either.
Which other movies are delayed due to coronavirus?
Plenty of films, including the new James Bond flick No Time to Die and the ninth Fast and Furious movie, have seen their release dates delayed due to coronavirus, but this sweeping announcement from Disney and their associated studios — which include Marvel and Lucasfilm — makes it clear that pretty much all releases will come to a halt until at least autumn.
Pixar's Soul, the newest effort from Inside Out's Pete Docter, is still currently slated for a June 19 release (though it's entirely possible that this timing could still change in the next few months), but that's pretty much the only big release still set for the start of summer. The studio's live action remake of Mulan, which recently announced its delay, is now scheduled for a July 24 release, and Wonder Woman: 1984 has moved back to August 14 — and by August, the world may well have a better understanding of where we are in this crisis.
Meanwhile, A Quiet Place Part II, which was supposed to come out this spring, is pushed all the way back to Labor Day weekend, and Marvel's next blockbuster, Scarlett Johannson's highly anticipated standalone Black Widow film, will take the November 6 release date previously occupied by The Eternals. In fact, Marvel's schedule-shifting has produced a domino effect, pushing everything back by a couple of months at least; everything from Doctor Strange 2 to Shang-Chi to Thor: Love and Thunder has shifted by a few months, proving that even the uber-powerful Marvel Cinematic Universe is powerless against this public health crisis.
Will all of these movies still hit theaters?
For some movies, there's no light at the end of the tunnel; Kenneth Branagh's Artemis Fowl, for example, has been shunted directly to Disney+ rather than getting a new release date, which doesn't exactly indicate that the studio has a ton of faith in the YA adaptation. A new take on Eoin Colfer's fantasy novels in which a child prodigy must rescue his brilliant father from a group of insidious fairies, the film features stars like Dame Judi Dench and Frozen's Josh Gad — but apparently, this star power wasn't enough to score a full theatrical release for Artemis Fowl.
This health crisis has put the entire world on hold, emptying major cities and pausing all of society for an undetermined amount of time — and per the CDC's current recommendation to stay home until at least April 30, it's clear that the film industry has to adjust to the fact that avid moviegoers are stuck at home just like everybody else. While we all look forward to the day that we might be able to go to the movies again, the best thing to do for the moment is to listen to medical professionals, and stay home.