Indiana Jones director confirmed, talks about subverting expectations… are we nervous yet?

It looks like we have a new director in the chair for Indiana Jones 5 – confirmed – and some details on the movie itself.

We reported in February that Logan director James Mangold would be helming the next Indy outing an now producer Frank Marshall has confirmed it: “His love of the franchise. He’s a wonderful filmmaker.

“I think he also has a relationship with Harrison. It was all of the right pieces coming together, at the right time. Steven is staying on as a producer, so we’ve got the best of everything.”

So, now that we know Mangold will helm – and we have no problems there at all – what has the director in mind?

Well, Mangold talked about the project shortly after the confirmation and seems determined that the movie won’t just be the same formulaic movie over again.

“I think the most important thing is, in an age when franchises have become a commodity, that serving the same thing again,” He said.

“At least for me, in the dances I’ve had with any franchises, serving the same thing again, the same way, usually just produces a longing for the first time you ate it. Meaning, it makes an audience wish that they just had the first one over again.

“So you have to push something to someplace new, while also remembering the core reasons why everyone was gathered. And to use Logan as an example of that, when you’re dealing in a world of a very pressured franchise.”

Well, I’m fine with the sentiment, but just so long as it’s more Force Awakens than Last Jedi: “For all of the things, and there were many that I freed myself from in the canon, in the baggage, to try and make the best story,” he says.

“The core values of Logan, of Wolverine, and Charles Xavier and the X-Men, were something that I felt we never abandoned. The core ideas of their honor, their sense of duty, and the uniqueness of this particular set of characters that they were outcasts, oddities. Beings that had no home in this world, and yet we’re trying to do good.

“Were trying to do something right and find their way. Those core issues were at the heart of the movie. And in any franchise I take in, I’d always be trying to capture and make sure that we preserve those core ideas that are at the center, because that’s why these stories are more than franchises. They’re the fairy tales of our contemporary culture.”

Mangold has an impressive slate of movies under his belt (Walk the Line, Ford Vs Ferrari), so we certainly know he has the skill and talent but when I hear about subverting fans’ expectations after The Last Jedi, I get a nervous twitch…

Anyway, what do guys all think?.

Source: Comicbook and Collider