Star Wars Celebration, the movable feast pep rally for everyone’s favorite franchise from a galaxy far, far away, is currently making the pulses of nerds young and old race in London, England. But in addition to offering sneak peeks at upcoming shows like Ahsoka and Skeleton Crew—and blowing minds by revealing Daisy Ridley’s return in an upcoming feature film—Disney and Lucasfilm took advantage of the spotlight to shift focus back to an adventure on planet Earth.
Director James Mangold, who also announced that he’s got a Star Wars film in development (“telling the tale of the first Jedi to wield the Force and harness its liberating power in a time of chaos and oppression,” according to Lucasfilm Empress Kathleen Kennedy), let ‘er rip with six minutes of footage as well as a new trailer for one of this summer’s most anticipated films: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
The first full-length trailer for the movie that will debut out-of-competition at the Cannes Film Festival in May goes full-blast on the excitement and nostalgia, as well as offering a little context for the new characters and the plot.
Harrison Ford‘s Dr. Henry Walton Jones Jr. (they named the dog Indiana) is considering retirement from his professorship in the late 1960s, but teams up for yet another adventure with his goddaughter, Helena, played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge (who also is a credited co-writer on the film along with Mangold, Jez and John-Henry Butterworth, and David Koepp.) Her father was once one of Indy’s fellow daredevil collectors, and became obsessed with retrieving a gewgaw called the “dial of destiny,” which appears to offer time traveling or at least time shifting powers. It seems she has new clues as to its whereabouts, but, oh no!, so do a group of Nazis (led by Mads Mikkelsen). Also in the mix are Antonio Banderas and Toby Jones, plus John Rhys-Davies returning as the Egyptian bon vivant Sallah, who, at one point, shouts “give ‘em hell, Indiana Jones!” in what promises to be an animated GIF we’ll see online forever.
It’s unclear exactly who Waller-Bridge’s character’s father is, but previous statements from Mangold suggested that it is not the late Denholm Elliot, who played Indy’s chum Marcus Brody in earlier chapters of the story. One cut implies that it might be Toby Jones’s character. Only those with the dial of destiny (or who have read the screenplay) know for sure!
On thing that’s evident, however, is that John Williams’s triumphant Indiana Jones theme will be deployed to full effect, even if this story is set decades later in the timeline. The trailer nimbly shifts from period-appropriate rock (“Sympathy for the Devil” by the Rolling Stones) into a version that’s elevated by strings, into the full-blown action-adventure anthem.
As the clip dials up into a frenzy of enthusiasm, we catch nostalgic glimpses that mirror the past, like a humongous rolling boulder, small cars speeding through a casbah, leaps from planes, mustache-twirling Nazis, Harrison Ford on a horse, and Harrison Ford being handsome.
Mikkelson and Waller-Bridge were in London with Mangold at the voluminous ExCel Center for the presentation, but Ford sent a message via video, thanking everyone for their enthusiasm for this franchise that is “full of heart, adventure, and, for some reason, snakes.”
This is the first of the five Indiana Jones pictures not to be directed by Steven Spielberg, though he and series co-creator George Lucas serve as executive producers. Mangold is coming off a string of successes including the Best Picture nominee Ford v Ferrari (which won Oscars for Best Film Editing and Best Sound Editing), Logan (a box office sensation nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay), and The Wolverine.
After its Cannes debut, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny will play at a theater near you on June 30.
