Can Indi­ana Jones sur­vive with­out Steven Spielberg?

The nice thing about long-run­ning fic­tion­al char­ac­ters is that, if we want them to, they can remain age­less for­ev­er. James Bond, for instance, will stay a strap­ping buck into per­pe­tu­ity as the actors por­tray­ing him get replaced once they’ve grown out of the role. Indi­ana Jones, for what­ev­er rea­son, can­not enjoy a sim­i­lar stature.

He will only ever be Har­ri­son Ford, appar­ent­ly unthink­able as any­one else, judg­ing by his repeat­ed returns to the fran­chise despite a grey­ing appear­ance out of joint with his exploits of der­ring-do. This fran­chise shows its wear and tear like few oth­ers, and the recent announce­ment of a fifth install­ment cued up jokes about geri­atric action heroes. (Geri­ac­tion!)

But an exclu­sive on Vari­ety yes­ter­day after­noon sug­gest­ed that Steven Spiel­berg may not be such an immutable part of the for­mu­la. The item reveals that Spiel­berg will cede his role as direc­tor to anoth­er tal­ent after hav­ing han­dled the first four films, and that James Man­gold has entered nego­ti­a­tions as a pos­si­ble successor.

The fan reac­tion was swift and harsh, the over­all sen­ti­ment being that nobody can con­jure up the nos­tal­gic mag­ic of the wartime adven­ture seri­als that inspired the Indi­ana Jones char­ac­ter quite like Spiel­berg. That’s prob­a­bly true; evok­ing the sen­sa­tion of the ​“good ol’ days” is pret­ty much his trade­mark, and even in more mixed out­ings, he’s suc­ceed­ed in that whisking-away.

But per­haps cut­ting him loose won’t be the worst thing. Admit­ted­ly, Spielberg’s finite num­ber of remain­ing years – the guy’s 73 years old – would prob­a­bly be bet­ter spent on an orig­i­nal project. The lega­cy of Indy may take a ding, but for the film world at large, it would be a net gain.

Besides, what’s to be expect­ed from an Indi­ana Jones com­ing up on 80? With 10 years sep­a­rat­ing the fourth and pro­posed fifth releas­es, the smell of cash-grab wafts stronger than ever. Maybe it would be a well-suit­ed project for Man­gold, direc­tor of the recent Le Mans ​’66, a film rather dialed-in to the feel­ing of being an old­er man on a mis­sion to get some of the old mojo back.

Regard­less of whether Indy needs Spiel­berg to sur­vive, the real con­clu­sion to be drawn here is that it’s time to lay Indi­ana Jones to a final rest. Replac­ing Har­ri­son Ford as Han Solo didn’t work, and replac­ing him here won’t either. Such a deci­sion goes against every stu­dio trend cur­rent­ly in vogue, but some­times, it’s best to just let things be.