Harrison Ford talks Indiana Jones 5's de-aging: "That's my actual face"

Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

(Image credit: Disney/Lucasfilm)

Harrison Ford has talked about the de-aging in Indiana Jones 5, revealing new details about how the process works.

The film, officially titled Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, will feature a flashback to Indy in his younger years. Some seriously impressive VFX work has turned back the clock on the adventuring archeologist – and the result is a version of Ford that looks like he's strolled right off the set of Raiders of the Lost Ark.

"That is my actual face at that age," Ford said on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. "They have this artificial intelligence program that can go through every foot of film that Lucasfilm owns. Because I did a bunch of movies for them, they have all this footage, including film that wasn't printed. So they can mine it from where the light is coming from, from the expression. I don't know how they do it. But that's my actual face. Then I put little dots on my face and I say the words and they make [it]. It's fantastic."

Similar work was performed by Lucasfilm to de-age Mark Hamill for The Mandalorian season 2 finale, as revealed in the episode's behind the scenes documentary. By the looks of things, that technology is just getting better and better.

Joining Ford in Indiana Jones 5 is a star-studded line-up that includes Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Toby Jones, Mads Mikkelsen, and Antonio Banderas.

"It was beautiful to just be close to him," Banderas told us on the Inside Total Film podcast of working on the film with Ford. "Some interviewers today, they say to me, 'Oh my God, I was 7 when Shrek 2 came out, and so now I'm 27 and interviewing you and I've been watching your movies since that time.' But the same thing happened to me with Harrison. I remember the first time I saw Indiana Jones, and I flipped out. So just being there, it was beautiful."

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny arrives in theaters this June 30. For everything else there is to look forward to this year, check out our guide to all the upcoming major movie release dates to plan 2023's theater trips.

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I'm the Deputy Entertainment Editor here at GamesRadar+, covering all things film and TV for the site's Total Film and SFX sections. I previously worked on the Disney magazines team at Immediate Media, and also wrote on the CBeebies, MEGA!, and Star Wars Galaxy titles after graduating with a BA in English.