How James Mangold is Going to Ace Indiana Jones 5

James Mangold has made a name for himself as a filmmaker through a series of unique and highly [...]

By Brandon Davis

James Mangold has made a name for himself as a filmmaker through a series of unique and highly intellectual movies. He is best known to the ComicBook.com audience for his work within the X-Men world on Logan but also boasts titles such as 3:10 to Yuma, Walk the Line, and Heavy. Soon, it is expected he will be taking over the Indiana Jones franchise for its fifth installment as legendary director Steven Spielberg hands over the reigns to the franchise. Mangold, ahead of his Quarantine Watch Party of Logan, talked with ComicBook.com about his past, present, and future in filmmaking. While he could not comment on Indiana Jones, his perspective of such a franchise is proof that we can go into his take on the property with high hopes.

When asked how he will approach the Indiana Jones movie, Mangold was quick to say, "I can't comment on anything like that."

However, he did go on to explain that in such a franchise, he will approach it no differently than he does with all of his other titles. "But like in all my work, I'm always trying to find an emotional center to operate from," Mangold explained. "I think the most important thing is, in an age when franchises have become a commodity, that serving the same thing again. At least for me, in the dances I've had with any franchises, serving the same thing again, the same way, usually just produces a longing for the first time you ate it. Meaning, it makes an audience wish that they just had the first one over again. So you have to push something to someplace new, while also remembering the core reasons why everyone was gathered. And to use Logan as an example of that, when you're dealing in a world of a very pressured franchise."

Mangold uses the subject of Wednesday's event as the perfect example. "For all of the things, and there were many that I freed myself from in the canon, in the baggage, to try and make the best story," Mangold said. "The core values of Logan, of Wolverine, and Charles Xavier and the X-Men, were something that I felt we never abandoned. The core ideas of their honor, their sense of duty, and the uniqueness of this particular set of characters that they were outcasts, oddities. Beings that had no home in this world, and yet we're trying to do good. Were trying to do something right and find their way. Those core issues were at the heart of the movie. And in any franchise I take in, I'd always be trying to capture and make sure that we preserve those core ideas that are at the center, because that's why these stories are more than franchises. They're the fairy tales of our contemporary culture."

While the director is not directly offering hints of where he might take the Indiana Jones franchise, his perspective of how he will step into such a saga sounds wholly refreshing and should be exciting for its biggest fans.

Are you hoping to see Mangold deliver Indiana Jones 5? Share your thoughts in the comment section or send them my way on Instagram and Twitter!

Mangold's Quarantine Watch Party of Logan with ComicBook.com starts Wednesday, May 27 at 9pm ET!

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