Indiana Jones 5 lands Mads Mikkelsen – could he play the villain?

Mads Mikkelsen Indiana Jones 5
(Image credit: Sony)

Indiana Jones 5 is finally pressing ahead and filming this year, with a release date set for July 2022. Having confirmed that actress Phoebe Waller-Bridge will be joining Harrison Ford in what's been called the final Indiana Jones movie, a new report says that Death Stranding and Hannibal actor Mads Mikkelsen will be joining them.

Deadline breaks the news that Mads is joining the cast, but details about his character are being kept under wraps. When Disney discussed the film late last year, it revealed the plan was to start shooting Indiana Jones 5 in late Spring – but Deadline reports that a summer production date is now the plan.

James Mangold, who made the excellent dad movie Ford Vs Ferrari and X-Men series capper Logan, is at the helm for Indiana Jones 5. Original director Steven Spielberg is producing the movie, though – and John Williams will return to provide the score.

Indiana Jones 5 is currently scheduled to release on July 29, 2022. 

Who could Mads play?

We've seen Mikkelsen play the villain in so many movies and shows now – Doctor Strange, Hannibal, Casino Royale and soon, Fantastic Beasts – that it'd almost be too easy to make the antagonist of Indiana Jones 5. The Indy films are never really about their villains, anyway, instead focusing on whatever the MacGuffin of each movie is, and the journey to get there.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull had a great cast, after all – it was everything else about the movie that didn't really work for us. 

Indiana Jones 5 isn't the only Indy project in the works right now: games publisher Bethesda is working on a new Indiana Jones game, from the creators of Wolfenstein. 

Samuel Roberts

Samuel is a PR Manager at game developer Frontier. Formerly TechRadar's Senior Entertainment Editor, he's an expert in Marvel, Star Wars, Netflix shows and general streaming stuff. Before his stint at TechRadar, he spent six years at PC Gamer. Samuel is also the co-host of the popular Back Page podcast, in which he details the trials and tribulations of being a games magazine editor – and attempts to justify his impulsive eBay games buying binges.