Harrison Ford fights space Nazis in Indiana Jones 5

Indiana Jones will take on a familiar adversary in the upcoming fifth installment in the Harrison Ford film franchise. According to Empire, the still unofficially titled Indiana Jones 5 will pit the part-time professor of archeology against Nazis – this time in the 1960s.

Among other revelations, it was revealed that the plot of IJ5 will revolve around the 1969 space race between the United States and the Soviet Union. While it’s unclear exactly how Ford’s character feeds into the Cold War competition, co-writer Jez Butterworth provided clear arguments for Indy’s anti-Nazi sentiments. “The simple fact is that the moon landing program was run by a bunch of ex-Nazis,” he said. “How ‘ex’ they are is the question. And it’s on Indy’s nose.”

“It’s not just that the model of what a hero is has completely changed,” Butterworth continued. “It’s not just that they’re looking for something where there’s nothing above — it’s like Reno without the gambling or whatever its lineage is. But the people behind it are his sworn enemies.”

It looks like Indy will deliver his brand of fedora-brimmed, whip-cracking justice to Voller, the main villain, played by Mads Mikkelsen and based on Nazi scientist/later NASA engineer Wernher von Braun. Hinting at his character’s motivations, the Hannibal actor shared, “He’s a man who would like to right some of the mistakes of the past… There’s something that could make the world a much better place to live in. He’d love to get his hands on it. Indiana Jones wants to get her hands on it, too. And so we have a story.”

The preview also introduced Boyd Holbrook’s Klaber, who the actor calls “a lapdog for Mads, and a crazy one at that.” He is known to have been involved in a pivotal action sequence involving the 1969 Apollo 11 parade in New York.

Indiana Jones 5 is scheduled to hit theaters on June 30, 2023 after several delays. It will be the first entry in the series not to be directed by Steven Spielberg, who passed the torch to James Mangold in 2020. The film also stars Phoebe Waller-Bridge as well as Antonio Banderas in an unspecified role.