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Credit: LucasfilmThe Walt Disney Company and Lucasfilm are struggling to find some way to make a new Indiana Jones feature work, and a trailer for the famed adventurer’s return to action is stunning fans with the return of Harrison Ford.
Lucasfilm Stumbles Across the Finish Line
When Disney acquired Lucasfilm from founder George Lucas in 2012 for a cool $4.05 billion, most of the attention was on the Star Wars franchise. Since then, Disney has released five Star Wars feature films (none of which have made their price tag back yet), more than a dozen live-action and animated series, ambitious theme park attractions like Galaxy’s Edge and Galactic Starcruiser, and more branded merchandise than you can shake a gaffi stick at.
However, Indiana Jones has historically been nearly as big a part of Lucasfilm’s success as Star Wars. The Harrison Ford-led series includes five theatrical films, a live-action Young Indiana Jones television series featuring Sean Patrick Flanery, Corey Carrier, and George Hall as differently-aged versions of the title character, dozens of novels and comic books, and a number of highly acclaimed video games.
Related: Award Winning ‘Indiana Jones’ Legend Tragically Passes Away
Unfortunately, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023) flopped at the box office when it hit theaters. While its immediate predecessor, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), had been released to an enormous $790 million haul (if not good reviews), it seems that audiences were not prepared to show up for Harrison Ford in his frequently-proclaimed final adventure with the character, especially considering that co-creators George Lucas and Steven Spielberg were largely hands-off. The James Mangold-directed movie, which had a production budget of $294 million, ended up costing Disney a catastrophic $134 million in losses.
The Dial of Destiny is almost certainly the final Indiana Jones movie, but that doesn’t mean that Disney is ready to give up on the IP.
Harrison Ford Returns as the Face of ‘Indiana Jones 6’
The first major post-Dial of Destiny project to emerge from Disney is Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, a first-person video game developed by MachineGames and published by Bethesda Softworks. The game is set between Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) as the famed adventurer fights the Axis Powers to gain control of the “Great Circle,” one of Jones’ trademark quasi-mystical MacGuffins.
A trailer for The Great Circle has now been released, giving fans a look at a virtual Harrison Ford back at it:
While actor Troy Baker provides the voice work for the title character, the actual likeness of Harrison Ford has been licensed for the game. Ford may be satisfied to have retired the character in feature films, but it seems that he is perfectly happy to have the character return with his face for fans across the world.
Related: Raiders of the Lost Mind: Disney+ Wrongfully Censors Indiana Jones
Bethesda Design Director Jens Andersson says of the game, “Since we are doing this mostly in first-person, you have the chance to truly become Indy. First-person makes you part of this world – allowing you to explore and experience things more intimately. What will you do when you’re dropped into this adventure with your wits and your whip? The world of Indiana Jones is a world with mysteries around every corner, where you’re racing against the clock and outsmarting your enemies as you hunt down artifacts.”
The Great Circle arrives on Xbox Series X|S and PC later this year and will be available on day one for Game Pass.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is currently streaming on Disney+. The film was directed by James Mangold, who co-wrote with David Koepp and the writing team of Jez and John-Henry Butterworth. It stars Harrison Ford, John Rhys-Davies, Karen Allen, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Antonio Banderas, Toby Jones, Boyd Holbrook, Ethann Isidore, and Mads Mikkelsen.
Do you think it’s time to retire the world’s favorite archaeologist? Tell Inside the Magic your thoughts in the comments below!