Look, INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL didn’t do much for fans when it came out. There was plenty of hype around it, considering LucasFilm had gotten the band back together. You had Steven Spielberg in the director’s chair, a story by George Lucas, Harrison Ford donning the iconic hat, John Williams scoring the thing, and even Karen Allen returning to the famous franchise. But the movie simply missed the mark. 

Similar to another hotly-anticipated project that would find Lucas revisiting hallowed ground that he, himself, had created, it didn’t seem to understand what fans of the originals loved about those movies. Spielberg, out making the rounds to discuss his latest business dealings, offered a couple of remarks aimed at letting people know that the next INDIANA JONES film would be more of a straight-up crowd pleaser for the fans.

“I think this one is straight down the pike for the fans,” the legendary director told Yahoo! News. This calls to mind what happened with STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS. The prequels were maligned for missing the elements that people loved most about the Original Trilogy, and so Episode VII did its best to deliver exactly what worked so well in the older films. Perhaps it tried to hit those notes a little too hard, as some have said that it felt like a total retread, but you can’t deny that the current batch of folks working on STAR WARS at least get what fans loved about the series to begin with.

Another common element here is Ford, who appeared in THE FORCE AWAKENS as a great bridge between the old and the new. Spielberg, perhaps with tongue in cheek, wants fans to know that he isn’t planning on pulling a FORCE AWAKENS when it comes to Ford in INDIANA JONES 5: “The one thing I will tell you is I’m not killing off Harrison [Ford] at the end of it.”

So you can take that comment however you’d like. He’s either having fun with one of the major twists from STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS, or he’s addressing the rumors that there’ll be a “passing of the hat” in this movie, so that future films can focus on someone like Indy’s son.

What do you think of these remarks? Does it encourage you to hear that INDIANA JONES 5 is going to be “straight down the pike” for fans? Or does that scare you because it sounds like it may be too familiar and play things too safely? Are you happy to hear that Ford’s Jones will live on for future installments- assuming this next one gets people excited about the franchise again?

Discuss!

SOURCE: Yahoo! News