Next Indiana Jones film excludes Shia LaBeouf
The son of Indiana Jones, previously played by LaBeouf, won't appear in the next film. It's no shock considering the actor's criticism of Steven Spielberg.
Mutt (Shia LaBeouf) joined his father, Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford), in "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull."
Indiana Jones will make his return to theaters in 2020. Just don't expect his son Henry Jones III, aka Mutt, to join him.
The character that Shia LaBeouf played in the 2008 "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" has been purposely left out of the next film, according to screenwriter David Koepp.
"Harrison plays Indiana Jones, that I can certainly say," Koepp told Entertainment Weekly on Monday. "And the Shia LaBeouf character is not in the film."
Steven Spielberg will direct the film, as he has all previous Indiana Jones films starting with 1981's "Raiders of the Lost Ark."
In October 2016, retired filmmaker George Lucas (who created the character and was heavily immersed in all previous Indiana Jones scripts) announced his decision not to involve himself in the next Indiana Jones film, other than remaining an executive producer.
The exclusion of LaBeouf from the upcoming film won't come as a complete shock to Indiana Jones fans, who might recall the actor's defensive reaction to mixed reviews from critics of "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull."
In 2010, LaBeouf told reporters that both he and Spielberg "dropped the ball" when it came to continuing the legacy of Indiana Jones. Although LaBeouf said he shared the blame for not making Mutt believable, he considered "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" flawed from the start.
"The movie could have been updated," he said. "There was a reason it wasn't universally accepted."
In 2016, LaBeouf was even more frank about his disapproval of working with Spielberg, when he told Variety that Spielberg was "less a director than he is a f–king company."
"I don't like the movies that I made with Spielberg," LaBeouf concluded.
It looks like LaBeouf won't have to worry about working again with the acclaimed director or following in Indiana Jones' footsteps.
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