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Harrison Ford Getting ‘De-Aged’ for ‘Indiana Jones 5’

The prolific actor will be digitally reconstructed to resemble his younger self for an opening sequence in the upcoming film, set during the events between ‘The Last Crusade’ and ‘Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.’

The opening sequence of Disney and Lucasfilm’s hotly anticipated ‘Indiana Jones 5’ will feature a de-aged Indy from the original trilogy era. The scene finds Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones back in 1944 as he fights some Nazi’s in a castle.

“Then we fall out, and you find yourself in 1969 [when the film is set],” director James Mangold told Variety. “So that the audience doesn’t experience the change between the ‘40s and ‘60s as an intellectual conceit, but literally experiences the buccaneering spirit of those early days… and then the beginning of now.”

Producer Kathleen Kennedy has lofty hopes for the fountain of youth digital effects, stating, “My hope is that, although it will be talked about in terms of technology, you just watch it and go, ‘Oh my God, they just found footage. This was a thing they shot 40 years ago.’”

Empire Magazine reports, “Several techniques were employed to pull the sequence off, including new ILM software that trawled through archived material of the younger Harrison Ford before matching it to the freshly-shot footage.” After seeing the footage, the 80-year-old Ford remarked, “This is the first time I’ve seen it where I believe it… I don’t think I even want to know how it works, but it works. It doesn’t make me want to be young, though. I’m glad to have earned my age.”

In the film’s main 1969 setting, Doctor Jones finds himself caught up in the space race, battling Hitler’s henchman once again. Apparently, the moon-landing program was absolutely chock-full of ex-Nazis. The more you know!

Ford is joined by Mads Mikkelsen, who plays villain Voller; Phoebe Waller-Bridge as Jones’ goddaughter Helena; Thomas Kretschmann; Boyd Holbrook; Shaunette Renée Wilson; Toby Jones; Antonio Banderas; and John Rhys-Davies.

Legendary composer John Williams will return for the fifth installment, and Steven Spielberg will produce with Kennedy, Frank Marshall, and Simon Emanuel. 

Laurén Alexa's picture

Cybersecurity specialist by day, investigative journalist by night.