The Walt Disney Company and Lucasfilm announced today two major upcoming release dates.
Star Wars: Episode IX is now set for release on May 24, 2019. Directed by Colin Trevorrow, the film will close out the third Star Wars trilogy.
In addition, the fifth chapter of the Indiana Jones series is now confirmed for a July 10, 2020 release. Both Steven Spielberg, director of every Indiana Jones film, and star Harrison Ford will return.
It will be great to finally be getting a "Star Wars" movie in the summer. The prequels were released in the summer and the amount of anticipation and just overall fun of having such movies come out during that season was great, I am just overwhelmingly filled with great memories from that time, even though those prequels didn't turn out to be anything special.
If you want to go further back in terms of nostalgia, the original Star Wars came out in the summer of 1977 and there are thousands of anectodes of how it was like that summer, "Star Wars" was EVERYWHERE, it took over the season.
Now, as for Indiana Jones. The film has yet to have a title and will arrive on July 10th, 2020. Harrison Ford is set to return as Indy and Steven Spielberg will direct.
The rumor of Chris Pratt taking over Ford's role will not happen and I'm all fine with that as long as Harrison Ford stops flying planes for a living and concentrates on being healthy and ready for this role.
The last Indiana Jones, Kingdom of Crystal Skull, had its charms, but was nevertheless a letdown. I hated it upon initial viewing but a rewatch, with tampered expectations, had me thinking this was actually a slight, but playfully entrtaining romp. Nevertheless, it was nowhere near as good as Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom or, even, The Last Crusade. Spielberg admitted it. Ford admitted it. The screenplay was terrible, it took them almost 20 years to write something concrete and all they could come up with was a half-cooked plot about aliens and nazis? It seems to me like Spielberg is going to try and make up for it with this next film. George Lucas won't have anything to do with this one, which is great, his screenplay and creative inputs usually stink. Another part of the reason the last Indy didn't work as well was that you had to suspend disbelief and pretend a 70 year-old Harrison Ford could pull off all those stunts. He's going to be 75 years old by the time this thing gets released ... The first two films are still the golden standard, but can we conceivably buy him at AARP age still kickin' ass?
[Star Wars]