Indiana Jones 5: Mads Mikkelsen is a 'sophisticated' villain

A new Indiana Jones film — Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny — is almost upon us, with Harrison Ford donning the hat and strapping on the bullwhip one last time.

A peek at new footage at Star Wars Celebration 2023 during the Lucasfilm Showcase revealed an extended six-minute clip of an exhilarating street-chase sequence called 'back to old-school' Indiana Jones set-pieces.

But there’s one element that differs from what’s gone before, according to director James Mangold. The Logan and Walk the Line helmer told Yahoo UK during a chat after the panel that Mads Mikkelsen’s bad guy Jürgen Voller isn’t like other Indy villains.

Read more: Everything we know about Indiana Jones 5

“No, I’d say he’s more sophisticated,” said Mangold. “He’s already been working in the United States on our moon projects and helping put us on the moon, so he’s been kind of part of life in the States. But he has another agenda – and that one would be familiar.”

That seems likely to be the pursuit of an artefact for nefarious purposes: an artefact that our hero, Indiana Jones, also wants to get his hands on.

Watch the new Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny trailer

So what else sets Mangold’s Indiana Jones film apart from what’s gone before?

“Well,” says Mangold, “it’s a new time and it’s a new place and also we’re giving you both a taste of the past and then a sudden shocking awakening into the present.

"But similarly what does make it new is that you have an old-school hero in a time that doesn’t necessarily welcome old-school heroes any more.”

It was also announced at Star Wars Celebration that James Mangold is to helm a new Star Wars movie set in the time of the Old Republic.

The film will mark the furthest back in time the franchise will ever have gone on screen. It is said to be a Biblical epic of sorts, going right back to the dawning of the Force.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is in cinemas on 30 June 2023.