Koepp Explains Why He Is No Longer Writing Indy 5

Indiana Jones 5 is still on track to be made, despite an endless amount of delays and pauses since it was officially announced years ago. The most recent development we heard was that Steven Spielberg would not be directing the next Indiana Jones adventure, but would stay on board as a producer. James Mangold was reported to be taking over duties as the director. David Koepp, who wrote Kingdom of the Crystal Skull for Spielberg, was announced to be working on the script for the film. But, with the change of director, it looks like Koepp will be stepping away from the project. Koepp spoke to Den of Geek about why he is no longer attached.

From Den of Geek:

"I tried a couple different versions with Steven and they all had some good stuff about them and they all had some stuff that didn’t work, which happens," he says. "But it was just very hard to have everybody come together and have all the elements — Steven, Harrison (Ford), the script and Disney — come together at once. And it didn’t."

Why he think now is the right time to leave…

"When James Mangold came in and Steven stepped out, that was a pretty logical breaking point," Koepp says. "It’s a gracious time to step out the door because I think the last thing a new director wants is the old director’s writer. I mean, that’s a drag. The last thing you need is some guy sitting around with his arms folded saying, ‘Well, the way Steven would have done it is…’ I had one nice friendly conversation with him and then I’m sure he wanted to be able to move on anyway. Everybody was pretty polite, I thought."

Indiana Jones 5 is still slated to be released on July 29, 2022. You can read the rest of Den of Geek’s story here.