Movie magic can do all sorts of things, like turn actors into their younger selves. Empire revealed that Indiana Jones 5 would be using VFX to have a de-aged Harrison Ford to make him what he looked like in the original trilogy.
The technology to turn the actor into a young man was only used in the opening scene of the film. It will start with him in a castle being swarmed by Nazis in 1944. The film takes place in the 1960s, so to make that connection with the story and the time jump that will occur, it delivers this flashback.
Indiana Jones 5 de-aged Harrison Ford with the use of VFX for opening scene
All sorts of techniques have been used in various films and TV shows to make actors what they once looked. We have seen the clock turned back for Samuel L. Jackson in Captain Marvel, Kurt Russell in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and Mark Hamill in The Mandalorian season 2. All of those were different techniques to achieve the goal. In this case, the film used multiple ways to reach the goal, like using ILM software “that trawled through archived material” of the actor back in the day.
Harrison Ford gave his reaction to his de-aged self in Indiana Jones 5 to Empire. To him, he found it “spooky” and doesn’t “want to know” how it came together. Looking at himself from 40 years ago does not make him yearn for those days as he is content with his age, which he views as “earned.”
The next installment of the franchise will be directed by Mangold, who is best known for helming Logan. It was written by Jez and John-Henry Butterworth (Ford v Ferrari). We will see the leading man reprise his famous role. He will be joined by Phoebe Walter-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Kretschmann (Avengers: Age of Ultron), Boyd Holbrook (Logan), and Shauntee Renée Wilson (Billions). The film releases in theaters on June 30, 2023.
