Disney has just announced that Harrison Ford will be reprising his iconic role as Indiana Jones in the fifth installment in the series with Steven Spielberg returning to the director’s chair. The pic will hit screens on July 19, 2019. Spielberg directed the previous four pics, and this one has yet to be titled. Franchise vets Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall will produce.

Deadline broke the news back in February 2015 that Spielberg was mounting this production. At the time, he expressed that he was interested in Chris Pratt joining. That casting is still TBD, per one insider.

“Indiana Jones is one of the greatest heroes in cinematic history, and we can’t wait to bring him back to the screen in 2019,” Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn said in a statement. “It’s rare to have such a perfect combination of director, producers, actor and role, and we couldn’t be more excited to embark on this adventure with Harrison and Steven.”

Ford is currently in famed franchise reboot mode with three of moviedom’s most iconic characters. He returned as Han Solo in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and also has the Blade Runner sequel which has a January 2018 release date.

Deadline is told that George Lucas is not involved. Typically in the past, prior to the Disney purchase of Lucasfilm, these Indiana Jones titles wouldn’t move forward in production unless Lucas and Spielberg saw eye to eye on the script and all elements. That’s one of the reasons why there’s always been a gap between sequels.

Famed archaeologist and explorer Indiana Jones was introduced in 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark ($284.2M domestic, $390M global) – one of AFI’s 100 Greatest American Films of All Time – and spawned sequels Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom ($179.9M, $333M global), 1989’s Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade ($197.2M domestic, $474.2M global), and 2008’s Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull. Together, the four titles grossed nearly $2 billion at the global box office.

Among the top Memorial Day openers, Crystal Skull has the second-highest four-day take with $126.9M behind Disney’s Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World’s End, which debuted to $139.8M. The 2008 title finaled with $317.1M at the domestic B.O. and $786.6M global.

Source: Deadline