Remember in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull when Shia LaBeouf’s character — Mutt Williams, aka Indy’s son — ridiculously starting swinging from vine to vine with a team of “helpful” monkeys in the middle of the jungle, and then went on to launch a full-scale attack on the evil Russian army? Yeah, we thought it was dumb too. But don’t worry — we hopefully won’t have to relive anything like that again — as Shia LaBeouf is reportedly out of Indiana Jones 5.
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The news was confirmed when, with speaking to Entertainment Weekly, screenwriter David Koepp said “Harrison plays Indiana Jones, that I can certainly say. And the Shia LaBeouf character is not in the film.”
Despite teasing a possible spin-off focusing on the Mutt Williams character in the closing shot of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, this isn’t overwhelmingly surprising news. The audience’s response to the Mutt Williams was lukewarm at best, and during a 2010 interview with the Los Angeles Times, LaBeouf admitted that he “dropped the ball on the legacy that people loved and cherished.”
LaBeouf has also reportedly never been the easiest actor to work with, especially as of late. And as far as we know, he's allegedly still off living in a cabin in Finland somewhere.
Koepp also told Entertainment Weekly that, in regards to Indy 5, “We’re plugging away at it. In terms of when we would start, I think that’s up to Mr. Spielberg and Mr. Ford. I know we’ve got a script we’re mostly happy with. Work will be endless, of course, and ongoing, and Steven just finished shooting The Post … If the stars align, hopefully it’ll be his next film.”
The fifth Indiana Jones film is set to be released in the summer of 2020, will see Harrison Ford return to play the title character and will also bring back Steven Spielberg to the director’s chair.