'Indiana Jones 5' Goes 'Heavily Back' to First Two Films, Teases Mads Mikkelsen: 'Dense and Epic'

The next Indiana Jones movie is going back to its roots.

Mads Mikkelsen — who will star opposite Harrison Ford in the action-adventure franchise's upcoming fifth installment — told The Hollywood Reporter, in an interview published Thursday, that the new film has a "dense and epic" feel. He said the sequel harkens back to Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984).

"[Raiders of the Lost Ark] was one of my favorite films, and it just oozed that golden period of serials from the 1940s — and that's in the fifth film as well," said Mikkelsen, 56.

"They're going heavily back to the first and second film and getting that original feel, the original Indy, something dense and epic," he added.

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The news of Mikkelsen's addition to the star-studded cast was announced back in April 2021. He is rumored to be playing the movie's villain, though official details about his character (and the film's plot) have been kept under wraps.

Fleabag's Phoebe Waller-Bridge will play the new partner of Ford's archaeologist hero, while Antonio Banderas was revealed last July to have joined the project in an undisclosed role.

Although Steven Spielberg is not returning as director — he helmed the first two films, plus 1989's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and 2008's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and returns as a producer — Mikkelsen told THR that the new movie "felt like a Spielberg film."

"Though it's obviously James making it with the same vision," he added of director James Mangold, who also co-wrote the fifth Indiana Jones film and is known for his work on movies like Walk the Line and Logan.

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In June 2021, Ford was seen in costume as the fictional archaeologist in a photo that circulated online, which Frozen star Josh Gad later posted to his Instagram account.

The photo showed Ford, 79, wearing the iconic character's brown fedora and a brown leather jacket over a beige button-down shirt.

Also joining the Indiana Jones 5 cast alongside Ford, Mikkelsen, Banderas, 61, and Waller-Bridge, 36, are Logan actor Boyd Holbrook and The Resident's Shaunette Renée Wilson.

Indiana Jones 5 is expected to hit theaters on June 30, 2023.