What is a major franchise without Mads Mikkelsen? Nothing, that’s what. From his eye-bleeding turn as Le Chiffre in Casino Royale to his fraught and too-brief existence as Jyn Erso’s sad dad in Rogue One (above) to his recent replacement of Johnny Depp in the Fantastic Beasts films, Mikkelsen has established himself as a franchise requirement. (Star Trek, I am looking at you: Beam him up right quick.) Now, as is only natural, Deadline reports that Mikkelsen will join Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Harrison Ford for the as-yet-untitled Indiana Jones 5, which has a director (Logan‘s James Mangold) but no known plot.
As every news update about the film is quick to remind us, Steven Spielberg is not directing but he is producing, along with Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall, and Simon Emanuel—and John Williams will return to compose the score.
Will Mikkelsen get typecast as a villain, again? (It’s kind of inevitable when you’re as good as he was in Hannibal.) Will he team up with Waller-Bridge to unseat Ford and take over this middle-aged series? (Yes, Indy 5 will supposedly be the final film for the franchise, but we know how Hollywood feels about reboots and remakes and spinoffs.) And, as we collectively wonder every single time this film comes up, when is this story set?
I have more questions, but they’re all a little irrelevant; Mikkelsen is good in everything, and hopefully he’ll have some good fun fighting Nazis or ancient relics or both or neither. Indiana Jones 5 will supposedly begin filming this summer, and is set to release on July 29, 2022. While you wait, please enjoy this collection of quotable gems from Mads “I’m simply not online” Mikkelsen.
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A Master of Djinn
