The complete Indiana Jones franchise will be available to stream on Disney+ on May 31. Country icon Reba McEntire will replace Blake Shelton as a judge on The Voice. Showtime is rebooting original comedies Weeds and Nurse Jackie. Fast X and Aquaman star Jason Momoa will host this summer’s Shark Week on Discovery. Plus, the trailer for season 2 of FX’s celebrated drama The Bear.
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Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (Photo by Lucasfilm)
Every Indiana Jones title (aside from the soon-to-be-released final installment, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, which hits theaters on June 30) will be available to stream on Disney+ on May 31.
Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy revealed at The Walt Disney Company’s Upfronts Presentation on Tuesday that the streamer has achieved a rights-sharing deal with Paramount. Up until now, Paramount has maintained control over all previously released titles in the franchise: Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and the short-lived TV prequel series The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones starring Sean Patrick Flanery.
This news comes as the first reviews arrive for Harrison Ford’s final adventure as the adventurous archeologist in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, which also stars Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen, Antonio Banderas, John Rhys-Davies, Shaunette Renée Wilson, Thomas Kretschmann, Toby Jones, Boyd Holbrook, Olivier Richters, and Ethann Isidore.
Adding to the hype of the new title’s release, the Mouse House is giving Disney+ subscribers early access to Dial of Destiny merch on May 31 – the same date the franchise titles his the streamer. Indiana Jones–branded Mickey Mouse ear headbands, Funko Pop collectibles, and more highly-anticipated items will be available for a limited time before going on sale to the general public.
Related: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny First Reviews: ‘Safe,’ ‘Wacky,’ ‘Empty,’ Critics Say
The Bear is back for its second season and this time around, Carmy (Jeremy Allen White), Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) and the rest are hustling to give his restaurant The Beef a facelift … or a gut. Or, both?
Picking up where season 1 left off, the crew is tackling Carmy’s vision in building a new destination restaurant. The hundreds of dollars they found hidden throughout the spot, placed there by his late brother Mikey (Jon Bernthal), has placed them on this path of reinvention. Rest assured, transforming The Beef into The Bear will be no easy feat. And that’s what we want. We’re all here for the chaos menu, after all.
The Bear season 2 will premiere all episodes on June 22 on Hulu.
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Reba McEntire visits The Voice “Live Semi-Final Top 8 Performances” (Photo by Trae Patton/NBC)
Country Music Hall of Fame inductee Reba McEntire will join season 24 of The Voice, following the exit of judge Blake Shelton. She’ll claim her red chair alongside returning coaches John Legend, Niall Horan, and Gwen Stefani.
The Voice has garnered four Emmy wins during its run on NBC and, for the fourth consecutive season, has been the No. 1 alternative series in total viewers. Season 24 of the popular musical competition series will premiere this fall on NBC.
Mary-Louise Parker in Weeds (Photo by Showtime)
Continuing with the trend of mining established IP for new stories, Showtime is gearing up to reboot comedies Nurse Jackie and Weeds with original stars Edie Falco and Mary-Louise Parker set to reprise their roles as Jackie and Nancy Botwin and executive produce the respective projects.
The projects are still in the early stages of development, according to Deadline. In 2019, a Weeds sequel was announced at Starz that would’ve follow the Botwin family a decade after the original series ended. This new project’s story is still being worked out, but would allegedly take place in Copenhagen. The concept for the Nurse Jackie sequel has yet to be finalized.
The original Emmy winning Weeds (which was created by Jenji Kohan and aired from 2005-2012) followed Nancy Botwin, a widowed mother of two boys who turns to dealing marijuana to support her family. Nurse Jackie followed Falco in the Emmy winning role as the titular pill-popping ER nurse. Both reboot projects are on the fast-track to launch in early 2024, depending on the duration of the current WGA writers strike.
Jason Momoa in Aquaman (Photo by Warner Bros.)
Shark Week, Discovery Channel’s week-long programming event, will return for a historic 35th year. And to bring the necessary hype to this new season, Fast X and Aquaman star Jason Momoa is stepping into the role as as Master of Ceremonies.
Dedicated to protecting and preserving our oceans, Momoa will guide fans through the biggest annual celebration of sharks. “As the host of Shark Week, I am beyond excited to take you along on this journey,” Momoa said in a statement. “This project means more to me than a week of talking about sharks. It’s a chance for me to learn and share my connection to these amazing creatures. My love of sharks came long before my time as Aquaman – it began several generations before me.”
Shark Week 2023 will air from Tuesday, July 11 to Tuesday, July 18 on Discovery.
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Exactly 15 years after the Cannes premiere of the previous installment, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny just made its debut at the same film festival, and the first reviews have made their way online. This fifth movie in the franchise sees Harrison Ford return as the titular adventuring archaeologist, with many of his scenes set in the past using de-aging special effects.
Also along for the ride are Phoebe Waller-Bridge as Indy’s goddaughter and Antonio Banderas as a new ally, while John Rhys-Davies returns as Sallah, last seen in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. James Mangold directs Dial of Destiny, taking over from Steven Spielberg, who helmed the first four Indiana Jones movies.
Here’s what critics are saying about Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
(Photo by Lucasfilm)
Click image to open full poster in a new tab.
“It’s fun; it’s wacky; it works.”
– Stephanie Bunbury, Deadline Hollywood Daily
“We all sat down to this movie hoping for a resurgence comparable to what JJ Abrams did with The Force Awakens, and if that didn’t exactly happen, it still gets up a storytelling gallop.”
– Peter Bradshaw, Guardian
“James Mangold brings the character’s adventures to a satisfying close.”
– James Mottram, South China Morning Post
“If this is the final Indiana Jones movie, as it most likely will be, it’s nice to see that they stuck the landing.”
– Steve Pond, The Wrap
“Unfortunately, it ultimately feels like a counterfeit of priceless treasure: the shape and the gleam of it might be superficially convincing for a bit, but the shabbier craftsmanship gets all the more glaring the longer you look.”
– Robbie Collin, Daily Telegraph
“A belabored reminder that some relics are better left where and when they belong.”
– David Ehrlich, IndieWire
“We have lived with worse.”
– Donald Clarke, Irish Times
Ray Winstone, Shia LaBeouf, Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Photo by ©Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection)
“It’s an improvement on the execrable Crystal Skull.”
– David Jenkins, Little White Lies
“This one has quite a bit of zip and fun and narrative ingenuity with all its MacGuffiny silliness that the last one really didn’t.”
– Peter Bradshaw, Guardian
“Dial of Destiny feels like an old-school Indy romp, more so than 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, as it tries to capture the rollicking spirit of the originals.”
– James Mottram, South China Morning Post
“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny may not be the finest film of the franchise, but it’s far from the worst.”
– Matt Neglia, Next Best Picture
“Nobody with a brain in their heads will compare Dial of Destiny favorably to the first three films.”
– Donald Clarke, Irish Times
“Four were enough.”
– Robbie Collin, Daily Telegraph
National Treasure (2004) stars Diane Kruger, Nicolas Cage, and Justin Bartha (Photo by Touchstone/courtesy Everett Collection)
“There are big National Treasure vibes…take from that what you will.”
– David Jenkins, Little White Lies
“It could give late-vintage Fast & Furious a very, very speedy run for its money when it comes to spectacular (and spectacularly ludicrous) SFX stunts.”
– Stephanie Bunbury, Deadline Hollywood Daily
“Ford is beyond triumphant…his performance shines in the sense that the audience can feel the deeply emotional send-off he personally is giving his character in every quip, every punch, and every heartfelt adage that comes off his lips.”
– Lex Briscuso, Slashfilm
“At 80 years old, Ford himself really gives it his all, even though the role initially requires him to look like he’d rather be anywhere else.”
– Robbie Collin, Daily Telegraph
“Now 80 years young, but carrying it off with humor and style and still nailing that reluctant crooked smile.”
– Peter Bradshaw, Guardian
“He never loses either his scowl or his doggedness. He plays even the flimsiest scenes with conviction and dry humour. His performance carries the movie. Age cannot wither him in the slightest.”
– Geoffrey Macnab, Independent
“Ford often seems disengaged, as if he’s weighing up whether this will restore the tarnished luster to his iconic action hero or reveal that he’s past his expiration date.”
– David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter
“She is gratifyingly badass.”
– Stephanie Bunbury, Deadline Hollywood Daily
“Like Karen Allen’s Marion in the first film, a Howards Hawksian woman.”
– John Nugent, Empire Magazine
“Phoebe Waller-Bridge has a tremendous co-star turn as Indy’s roguish goddaughter.”
– Peter Bradshaw, Guardian
“Waller-Bridge has clearly been given the instruction to ‘just do Fleabag’ but she’s operating without Fleabag-level material here, and her frequent attempts to juice up the clumsy gags with her trademark winking delivery tend to fall flat.”
– Robbie Collin, Daily Telegraph
“While Phoebe Waller-Bridge, of Fleabag fame, makes her saucy, spiky, and duplicitous in a cheeky way (she’s like the young Maggie Smith with a boatload of attitude), we never feel in our guts that Helena is a chip off the old Indy block.”
– Owen Gleiberman, Variety
Mads Mikkelsen (left) and Thomas Kretschmann (far right) in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (Photo by Lucasfilm Ltd.)
“As Jürgen Voller, Mads Mikkelsen is enjoyably hissable.”
– John Nugent, Empire Magazine
“Mikkelsen, flanked by some heavies including Boyd Holbrook, is an excellent adversary.”
– James Mottram, South China Morning Post
“He’s an infuriating villain, one that feels both menacing and overwhelming in his brutish intelligence — the kind of adversary it seems impossible to defeat, and thus the perfect final match for the one and only Indiana Jones.”
– Lex Briscuso, Slashfilm
“Mikkelsen can be a fabulously debonair villain (see: Casino Royale), but any interesting idiosyncrasies the character might have exhibited are drowned in convoluted plot. This calls for a larger-than-life bad guy, and he’s somehow smaller.”
– David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter
“Mads Mikkelsen, with his lizard scowl and his shiny metallic hair, doesn’t play Voller as a realistic character. He’s a leering megalomaniac out of central casting.”
– Owen Gleiberman, Variety
“Unfortunately, what we get is the pantomimic, hubristic, goose-stepping version of the Nazis.”
– David Jenkins, Little White Lies
“The action is often very inventively staged. James Mangold, who has taken over directing duties from Steven Spielberg, sets a breakneck tempo.”
– Geoffrey Macnab, Independent
“A bit involving a very heavy bomb is worthy of any movie this franchise has ever produced.”
– David Ehrlich, IndieWire
“There are plenty of jolly chases, including a tuk-tuk vs classic Jag event in the narrow streets of Tangier.”
– Peter Bradshaw, Guardian
Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (Photo by Jonathan Olley/Lucasfilm Ltd.)
“The action is generic and clunkily staged – for all the local detail in every individual shot of the heavily advertised tuk-tuk chase, it might as well be taking place on an endless conveyor belt.”
– Robbie Collin, Daily Telegraph
“Endless action sequences can become so flabbily overblown they lose any punch, but [Mangold] is never anything but brisk.”
– Stephanie Bunbury, Deadline Hollywood Daily
“Like virtually all action sequences these days, this one suffers from the fact that visual effects can do pretty much anything, which tends to strip away any sense of surprise, novelty or even high stakes, no matter how frantic and extravagant things get.”
– Steve Pond, The Wrap
“[They] utilize too much (far too much) of the era’s computer-generated imagery.”
– Donald Clarke, Irish Times
Boyd Holbrook in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (Photo by Lucasfilm Ltd.)
“The recreations of the 1960s vistas are gorgeous.”
– Donald Clarke, Irish Times
“There’s no shot here, nor twist of choreography, that makes you marvel at the filmmaking mind that conceived it.”
– Robbie Collin, Daily Telegraph
“The climax of the film…looks washed out and sallow.”
– Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair
Harrison Ford, Mads Mikkelsen, and Toby Jones in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (Photo by Lucasfilm Ltd.)
“The plot is hokum of the cheesiest hue, but the screenwriters know that hokum is the mulch in which this franchise germinates.”
– Donald Clarke, Irish Times
“The screenplay does provide a few big laughs.”
– Jo-Ann Titmarsh, London Evening Standard
“The screenplay sometimes seems like a mish-mash of elements from the older movies thrown together in scattergun fashion.”
– Geoffrey Macnab, Independent
“The globe-trotting can occasionally feel a bit MacGuffin-by-numbers: we must find the thing, which leads us to the map, which will help find the other thing.”
– John Nugent, Empire Magazine
“One can feel the four credited screenwriters grasping at inspiration and coming up short.” – Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair
“Considering that the screenplay is credited to four writers, couldn’t they at least have thought of something cool for Indy to do with his whip?”
– Nicholas Barber, BBC.com
Harrison Ford de-aged in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
“It contains lots of satisfying fan service, from old friends popping up, to familiar situations unfolding in different ways.”
– Steve Pond, The Wrap
“Just hearing John Williams’ score, yet another variant on the heroics and theatrics of the original, makes anyone of a certain age feel that everything is momentarily right with the world.”
– Stephanie Bunbury, Deadline Hollywood Daily
“This is an exercise in affectionate nostalgia.”
– Geoffrey Macnab, Independent
“At least this film’s easy nostalgia has some meta-textual purpose behind it.”
– David Ehrlich, IndieWire
“The film just about gets a passing grade for not going too heavy on the nostalgia-porn fan service.”
– David Jenkins, Little White Lies
“The missing component is Steven Spielberg, for as talented as a director James Mangold is, he cannot measure up to the cinematic brilliance that Spielberg imbues into each of his projects.”
– Matt Neglia, Next Best Picture
“James Mangold, tasked with living up to a fearsome legacy, is competent with an action set piece, but displays little of Spielberg’s nimble, inventive physics, or of Spielberg’s famous gift for conjuring awe.”
– Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair
“It’s content to tick off everything you’ve seen in other Indiana Jones films already, but with little of Spielberg’s sparkle.”
– Nicholas Barber, BBC.com
“The biggest (or at least most evident) difference between Spielberg and Mangold is that one of them would never have allowed himself to make anything this stale, and one of them probably wasn’t given any other choice.”
– David Ehrlich, IndieWire
Phoebe Waller-Bridge in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (Photo by Lucasfilm Ltd.)
“As the film goes on, the focus on uninteresting puzzles becomes a bit tedious.”
– Donald Clarke, Irish Times
“Tonally, the film wavers. It pulls in too many different directions at once.”
– Geoffrey Macnab, Independent
“One problem is the title relic, a curio of Ancient Greek lore rumored to give its possessor the power of time travel…Dial of Destiny’s digression from holiness, though, is less than inspiring.”
– Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair
70%
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
(2023)
(Walt Disney Pictures)
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On December 10, 2020, Disney unveiled its new streaming-focused strategy to investors at a special, online Investor Day. With an aim to hit between 300 and 350 million subscribers to its direct-to-consumer platforms by 2024, the company expects all of its creative silos to produce high quality content for Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+, and Star – an international streaming component which will serve as the main app in some regions and a Hulu-like component of Disney+ in others.
But as the company itself admitted during the tail end of the roughly four-hour presentation, hitting that subscriber number means leveraging Star Wars for all its worth. Luckily, Lucasfilm was ready to deploy plenty of content from the Galaxy Far, Far Away. In addition to The Mandalorian, the company will produce eight additional shows over the next few years. It also plans to continue making feature films and even branch out into realms where even the Mandalorian cannot tread.
It all represents a lot of content, so let’s take a look at everything we learned from the Lucasfilm presentation at Disney’s Investor Day.
(Photo by © 2020 Lucasfilm)
Although in development for quite sometime, the spy-thriller series staring Diego Luna as Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’s Cassian Andor is finally in production. To celebrate, Lucasfilm unveiled a sizzle reel featuring a look at some of the sets and finally confirmed the series will be called Andor. Set prior to Rogue One, it will see Cassian becoming a valuable Rebel asset and feature actors Stellan Skarsgård, Adria Arjona, Fiona Shaw, Denise Gough, and Kyle Soller. Genevieve O’Reilly will also appear as Mon Mothma, a part she has played since Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. The 12-episode series will debut on Disney+ in 2022.
(Photo by © Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved/Courtesy Everett Collection)
Also in development for seeming ages, the Obi-Wan Kenobi limited series coming to Disney+ will feature Ewan McGregor as the famed Jedi and, in a shocking twist, Hayden Christensen as Darth Vader. Kennedy teased a “rematch of the century” between the two former friends 10 years after Obi-Wan left Vader for dead on Mustafar. This notion would seemingly break one of the longest-standing aspects of Star Wars continuity – the two are not supposed to meet again until their fight on the Death Star – but there are many ways for Obi-Wan to encounter his former apprentice again. Nevertheless, fans of the Star Wars prequels were pleased to hear of Christensen’s return. Under the direction of Mandalorian veteran Deborah Chow, the series will begin production in March of 2021.
The animated Star Wars: The Bad Batch will continue the tale of the special mission clone troopers featured in the final season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. As their name suggests, the unit is composed of clones who hatched differently from the rank-and-file troops. Each member of the team is a highly specialized commando, but not exactly predictable or compliant. As glimpsed in the teaser trailer screened at the Investor Day presentation, the program will follow the Bad Batch as they become mercenaries in the early days of the Empire. The series comes to Disney+ next year.
Beyond those four shows, which we had some details of before Investor Day, the future of Star Wars on Disney+ was veiled in a mist of rumors and unconfirmed reports. Kennedy dispelled some of that uncertainty by announcing five new titles and one film-length adventure for the service.
Though Kennedy spent most of her time talking about Star Wars’s place on Disney+, she did offer some updates on the feature film slate. Taika Waititi is still working on the script to his Star Wars film. “Taika’s approach to Star Wars will be fresh, unexpected, and … unique,” Kennedy said. “His enormous talent and sense of humor will ensure that audiences are in for an unforgettable ride.”
— Patty Jenkins (@PattyJenks) December 10, 2020
But Kennedy surprised everyone by announcing Wonder Woman’s Patty Jenkins would direct the next Star Wars feature, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron. Set in a what Kennedy called a “future era of Star Wars,” it will tell the tale of the famed X-Wing fighter squadron. In a video Jenkins posted to her own Twitter account, she said the project takes inspiration from her father, a US fighter pilot who lost his life in service to the country. “It ignited a desire to turn all that tragedy and thrill into the greatest fighter pilot film of all time,” she explained. It is slated for release in December of 2023.
Curiously, though, no mention was made of the film trilogy Rian Johnson is reportedly developing for Lucasfilm.
(Photo by © Lucasfilm)
Beyond Star Wars, Lucasfilm is also working on a handful of interesting projects.
First, there is the Willow television series. Spearheaded by Solo: A Star Wars Story‘s Jonathan Kasdan and Arrow‘s Wendy Mericle, it will follow a new generation of heroes and a returning Willow Ufgood (Warwick Davis) on quest to save the realm. According to unconfirmed reports, Ellie Bamber, Cailee Spaeny, and Erin Kellyman will lead the series as that younger generation of adventurers. Crazy Rich Asians’ Jon Chu will direct the pilot.
Kennedy also confirmed the upcoming Indiana Jones film will be the last. Harrison Ford returns once last time as Dr. Henry Jones Jr. But in a series first, Steven Spielberg will hand the director duties off to Logan’s James Mangold. The choice of director also reflects the sense of finality developing around the project.
But perhaps most exciting project touted is Lucasfilm’s first new concept in decades: the company intends to adapt City of Blood & Bone by Tomi Adeyemi for the big screen. The story centers on a young African girl’s quest to restore magic to her forsaken people. While Lucasfilm will always be the Star Wars company, it is refreshing to see them look to new ideas. 20th Century Studios will act as a producing partner on the project.
Lucasfilm’s plans presented by Kennedy suggest a robust future for Star Wars and a big turnaround from the original intention to produce a new Star Wars film every year. Surprisingly, the streaming universe seems a better fit, although, we cannot wait until it is safe to see a Patty Jenkins X-Wing movie in a theater. Nonetheless, it is hard to ignore the hard shift to Star Wars as a home entertainment brand. Of course, we imagine generations of fans clutching their action figures and DVDs will find little to complain about in this expanded, streaming Star Wars future.
January 2021 Update: This report was updated to clarify that The Mandalorian season 3 is not expected in 2021.
