Mads Mikkelsen says Indiana Jones 5 gets back to the ‘original feel’ of the first and second movies

Mads Mikkelsen in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore — (Image credit: Warner Bros.)

Mads Mikkelsen has revealed that the upcoming Indiana Jones movie is returning to its roots.

It was announced back in 2021 that Mikkelsen had joined the cast of the untitled sequel, alongside Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Antonio Banderas – and of course, Harrison Ford.

"[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," Mikkelsen told The Hollywood Reporter. "They’re going heavily back to the first and second film and getting that original feel, the original Indy, something dense and epic."

While Steven Spielberg helmed the first four films in the epic adventure franchise, the fifth installment is the first to hand the reins over to another director – James Mangold, who directed the Hugh Jackman-led Logan and The Wolverine, as well as Ford V Ferrari. "It felt like a Spielberg film, though it’s obviously James making it with the same vision," Mikkelsen says.

Though Spielberg has stepped down, Ford, now, 80, is still set to reprise his role as Indiana Jones. Mikkelsen was both impressed and slightly terrified of the elder Ford's energy and strength.

"It was the first time I met him, and he’s an insanely powerful person," he says. “Not just as an actor, but physically. I remember the first day we were shooting, it was a night shoot, then we stopped at 5 a.m. — and then he got on his mountain bike and went biking for 50 kilometers. Harrison is a monster of a man, a very nice monster."

Mikkelsen plays Gillert Grindelwald in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, taking over from Johnny Depp who was ousted from the role following 2018's Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. The film is in theaters now.

Lauren Milici is a Senior Entertainment Writer for GamesRadar+ based in New York City. She previously reported on breaking news for The Independent's Indy100 and created TV and film listicles for Ranker. Her work has been published in Fandom, Nerdist, Paste Magazine, Vulture, PopSugar, Fangoria, and more.