Amongst the properties that have fallen into Disney’s hands as part of its $4.05bn acquisition of Marvel is the Indiana Jones franchise. And while much has already been made of what Disney plans to do with Star Wars (you can find our thoughts here), where it leaves the planned Indiana Jones 5 was also something we were curious about.
Back when George Lucas revealed he was backing out of film making, at first there seemed to be a caveat covered Indiana Jones 5. However, the movie has looked less and less likely since, with the Blu-ray boxset release, through Paramount, the last major activity surrounding the franchise.
Disney has, though, already answered the question to a point with regards Indiana Jones. “We didn’t assign any value to the Indiana Jones franchise due to the encumbances that exist”, said Robert Iger of Disney. That’s presumably down to the tie-in with Paramount, and Disney would be facing the kind of bill to the studio that it paid to get hold of the likes of The Avengers, Captain America and Thor after it acquired Marvel. As part of that deal, for instance, Paramount took 8% of the gross of The Avengers. No small change.
Disney’s immediate focus, now the Lucasfilm deal has been done, is the Star Wars franchise. We can’t help but feel that as consequence of all of this, that Indiana Jones 5 might just have finally been laid to rest (it was already looking much shakier, given Steven Spielberg's recent comments). There just doesn’t seem, given the studio’s current slate, much incentive to pursue one more film in the Indy franchise, especially given that it’s likely to be the last. If Paramount didn't have a stake? Perhaps. But it does, and we suspect that might be that...
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