EXCLUSIVE: Following the confirmation during the Disney Investors presentation in December that the next film will make a comeback, Lucasfilm and director James Mangold want to focus on Harrison Ford’s first new co-star in the next episode of Indiana Jones franchise. Sources say the deadline is that Phoebe Waller-Bridge will play opposite Ford in the fifth installment, with Ford returning as everyone’s favorite fedora-wearing, whiplashing archaeologist.
Mangold takes over the reins from Steven Spielberg, who still serves as producer and is very involved in various elements of the film. Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall and Simon Emanuel will join Spielberg as producers. John Williams, who has worked on every score in the franchise, including the iconic theme, will also return as a composer.
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The hope is to start production this summer, with Mangold meeting other talent for other roles in preparation for production. The details of the plot are still vague about what new adventure awaits Jones, as well as the details of who Waller-Bridge will play. The film will arrive on July 29, 2022.
Waller-Bridge ran quite a bit after her TV show Fleabag became a critical darling and eventually enlisted the 2019 Emmys, including Best Actress and Best Comedy Series. Since then she has been involved in the TV and film front and has been a producer on the BBC series Kill Eva as well as to serve as a writer on the following James Bond photo No time to die. She will also star alongside Donald Glover in the Amazon series Mr and Mrs Smith, where she will also serve as executive producer and author.
It would be a kind of pseudo-reunion for Waller-Bridge and Lucasfilm, after L3-37 in Solo: A Star Wars story.
Waller-Bridge is repeated by UTA, Independent Talent, Hatton McEwan Penford and Ziffren Brittenham LLP.